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NASA's new ion-propulsion system could be ready for launch as soon as 2013. 

Ion propulsion works by electrically charging, or ionizing, a gas using power from solar panels and emitting the ionized gas to propel the spacecraft in the opposite direction. The concept was first developed over 50 years ago, and the first spacecraft to use the technology was Deep Space 1 (DS1) in 1998. Since then, one other spacecraft has used ion propulsion: the Dawn mission to the outer solar system, launched in 2007.

To build the new ion-propulsion system under NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program, engineers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH, modified and improved the design of the engines used for DS1 and Dawn. "We made it physically bigger, but lighter, reduced the system's complexity to extend its lifetime, and, overall, improved its efficiency," says Michael Patterson, the principal investigator on the project.

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