Electric Propulsion Lab

AE Alumni Board Funds First Endowed AE Fellowship

Aerospace Engineering at Illinois is pleased to announce that full funding has now been achieved for the department's first endowed graduate fellowship.

Prof. Scott White highlighted in 'Bloomberg Businessweek'

AE Prof. Scott R. White and his research have been featured on magazine's website.

AE Students Awarded Rockwell Collins Scholarships

Three AE students have received scholarships of $5,000 each, thanks to the philanthropy of Rockwell Collins, Inc.

AE Students Compete in NASA Lunabotics Competition

AE students are members of a University of Illinois team competing in the Third Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition, hosted by NASA.

Tanaka Wins CDC Best Student Paper Award

AE graduate student Takashi Tanaka won the 2011 Best Student Paper Award from the Conference on Decision and Control of IEEE.

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Faculty Researchers:	Location:	Phone:	Website:
Professor R. L. Burton	Room 6 Talbot Laboratory	217-244-7242

Description of Research:

Directed by Professor R. L. Burton. Physics of several types of electric thrusters, which use less propellant than chemical thrusters, are being studied experimentally for space applications. Both DC and Pulsed Arcjet Electrothermal Thrusters are investigated at power levels of 50 to 1000 watts and thrust to levels of 0.01 to 0.10 newtons. Pulsed plasma thrusters, with specific impulses of 800 to 1500 seconds on Teflon propellant, are being studied at power levels of 10 - 100 watts. The basic physics of electrode erosion is being studied. High power pulsed electromagnetic thrusters using metallic gallium propellant are also being investigated.