I'm not sure on the gas thing,i thought ion drive in space vehicle relied on accelerating ions through an exhaust?.Gridded ion thrusters is what they are referred to. But as we read in the PDF,all thrust is lost once they place in a vacuum.And looking at the device,i see no difference to that of the lifter we can all build on our kitchen table. When i got mine up and running,you could smell the ozone,and see a purple corona around the craft. At the very least,it was a great show. For my power supply,i just used an old flyback transformer from an old monitor,and it worked a treat.
Found this Ion Thruster Operation Modern ion thrusters use inert gases for propellant. The majority of thrusters use xenon, which is chemically inert, colorless, odorless, and tasteless. The propellant is injected from the downstream end of the thruster and flows toward the upstream end. This injection method is preferred because it increases the time that the propellant remains in the chamber. In a conventional ion thruster, electrons are generated by a hollow cathode, called the discharge cathode, located at the center of the engine on the upstream end. The electrons flow out of the discharge cathode and are attracted to the discharge chamber walls, which are charged to a high positive potential by the thruster's power supply. The electrons from the discharge cathode ionize the propellant by means of electron bombardment. High-strength magnets are placed along the discharge chamber walls so that as electrons approach the walls, they are redirected into the discharge chamber by the magnetic fields. By maximizing the length of time that electrons and propellant atoms remain in the discharge chamber, the chance of ionization is maximized, which makes the ionization process as efficient as possible. Regards Mike
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