ADAERIS Propulsion System

Ion propulsion has matured into a cornerstone technology for long-duration space missions, offering orders-of-magnitude improvements in propellant efficiency relative to chemical rockets. Historic gridded ion engines and more recent Hall-type devices have shown that sustained, low-thrust operation enables high acceleration over long mission timelines, but they remain constrained by propellant choice, electrode erosion, and power-to-thrust tradeoffs. This work introduces the Adaptable Dry Air Electrostatic Repulsion Ion System (ADAERIS), a single, configurable ion-thruster architecture designed to operate efficiently with xenon/krypton in vacuum and with dry air in terrestrial or near-atmospheric environments. ADAERIS combines an optimized ionization chamber, sequenced acceleration stages, and electromagnetic confinement to improve ionization fraction and reduce required extraction voltages; neutralization is provided by a dedicated electron emitter. Design elements inspired by a Tesla-valve and Venturi geometry are applied to the neutral-gas feed and pre-ionization plumbing (not as direct plasma rectifiers) to regulate flow and minimize back-streaming of neutrals. The propulsion model retains a momentum-exchange basis with an added dielectric/collisional correction to capture gas-dependent behavior and guide material and operating-point selection. Preliminary simulations and theoretical analysis indicate the ADAERIS configuration can be adapted for noble-gas space operation and air-ambient use—with explicit tradeoffs in specific impulse, erosion rates, and system lifetime that are addressed through materials selection and adjustable operating parameters.