Thrusters (spacecraft)

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A thruster is a spacecraft propulsion device used for orbital station-keeping, attitude control, or long-duration, low-thrust acceleration, often as part of a reaction control system. A vernier thruster or gimbaled engine are particular cases used on launch vehicles where a secondary rocket engine or other high thrust device is used to control the attitude of the rocket, while the primary thrust engine (generally also a rocket engine) is fixed to the rocket and supplies the principal amount of thrust. Some devices that are used or proposed for use as thrusters are: Cold gas thruster Electrohydrodynamic thruster, using ionized air (only for use in an atmosphere) Electrodeless plasma thruster, electric propulsion using ponderomotive force Electrostatic ion thruster, using high-voltage electrodes Hall effect thruster, a type of ion thruster Ion thruster, using beams of ions accelerated electrically Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, electric propulsion using the Lorentz force Pulsed inductive...

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