Drucella Andersen

Headquarters, Washington, D.C. December 4, 1991

(Phone: 202/453-8613) Noon EST

Jim Doyle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 91-197

NASA TO RESEARCH NEW ROCKET PROPELLANT

A soccerball-shaped carbon molecule may be the

perfect propellant for a type of spacecraft engine that
produces thrust by expelling charged atoms or molecules.

Stephanie D. Leifer, an engineer at NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and
Winston A. Saunders of the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, propose to use the
molecule Carbon 60 as a fuel in ion engines. These
engines, which generate thrust by ionizing and
accelerating propellants, use less fuel than conventional
chemical thrusters.

Leifer believes Carbon 60 has properties that will

reduce the energy required to ionize the propellant.
"For applications where it is desirable to operate at a
relatively low to moderate exhaust velocity, ion engines
using low ion mass propellants become less efficient,"
Leifer said. "A large molecule such as Carbon 60 would
allow for more efficient operation at low exhaust
velocities," she said.

Because the structure of Carbon 60 resembles a

geodesic dome, it is also called "buckminsterfullerene"
in honor of the dome's inventor R. Buckminster Fuller.
Scientists informally refer to the molecules as
buckyballs."

JPL and Caltech have started a joint effort to

examine the use of Carbon 60 in ion thrusters. The
program will study the basic properties of the molecule
important to ion propulsion and will evaluate it as a
fuel in a small ion engine testbed.

- more -
- 2 -
 The first practical application of ion engines most
likely will be in orbital transfer missions and station-
keeping for satellites in geosynchronous orbit 22,300
miles above Earth. Later, Carbon 60 could give advanced
ion engines much higher thrust and power levels than are
possible today.

"This project is an excellent example of looking

beyond one's sub-specialty to find new and potentially
useful technologies," said Saunders. "Stephanie and I got
together over lunch one day to talk about using clusters
in ion thrusters. I knew something about Carbon 60, but
nothing at all about ion engines. She knew about their
current limitations and requirements of ion engines. On
the spot, we cooked up this idea to use C60 and within 2
weeks we had filed a patent disclosure. "It's the kind
of synergetics Buckminster Fuller advocated," added
Saunders.

-end-

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