Microthrusters propel small satellites at MIT

A pennysized rocket thruster may soon power the smallest satellites in space. The device, designed by Paulo Lozano, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, bears little resemblance to today s bulky satellite engines, which are laden with valves, pipes and heavy propellant tanks. Instead, Lozano s design is a flat, compact square much like a computer chip covered with 500 microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions. Together, the array of spiky tips c