RE: Electric aircraft are a reality - what about electric spacecraft?
Alvin Eriol > April 18th, 2022, 12:14 PM
Ion thrusters and plasma thrusters are electric low-thrust engines in use for mainly deep-space probes. The thrust developed by the current designs in use are low, but thrust can be sustained a relatively long time and could be powered by solar energy, stored electricity, or nuclear isotope or reactor generators. Ion thrusters use electrical charge fields and plasma thrusters use magnetic fields to fling ionized particles backwards, driving the spacecraft forward with the reaction. Plasma engines are electricity hogs; one typical model consumes 20 kilowatts to generate 5 newtons (1.124 lb) of thrust. At one AU (average radius of Earth orbit around the Sun) this would require almost 15 square meters of solar power capture to supply, plus inefficiency, and more as the craft gets farther from the Sun per the inverse square proportionality principle.
These systems, esp. ionic, do not generate enough thrust to overcome gravity or air resistance, and have other drawbacks such as a tendency to erode their own structures over time at high output, therefore I can't see they will be practical for propelling aircraft or launching spacecraft from a planet or large moon for the foreseeable.