Patent ID: 7634903

Claim:
An ion engine comprising: a housing; an ion discharge chamber divided into a plurality of sections, each section disposed at an angle from the other sections and each section open at a bottom end sufficient to allow the escape of a vaporized material and adapted to connect to a plurality of propellant entry chambers; a plurality of propellant entry chambers in the housing each open at the end connected to the ion discharge chamber and adapted to receive entry of the vaporized material; a first positively charged electrode attached to the housing near the bottom end of the ion discharge chamber; a second positively charged electrode attached to the housing near the bottom end of the ion discharge chamber; a first negatively charged electrode attached to the housing between the first positively charged electrode and the bottom end of the ion discharge chamber; a second negatively charged electrode attached to the housing disposed relative to the second positively charged electrode such that the second negatively charged electrode is between the second negatively charged electrode and the bottom end of the ion discharge chamber; a third positively charged electrode attached to the housing near the area where the propellant entry chambers are adapted to receive the vaporized material; a third negatively charged electrode attached to the housing near the area where the propellant entry chambers are adapted to receive the vaporized material disposed with the third positively charged electrode between the third negatively charged electrode and each propellant entry chamber; a means to energize the third negatively charged electrode; and the vaporized material consisting of P 4 O 6 .