FTA: "Several space missions have already used ion engines, including NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which is en route to the asteroids Vesta and CeresMovie Camera, a

FTA: "Several space missions have already used ion engines, including NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which is en route to the asteroids Vesta and CeresMovie Camera, and Japan's spacecraft Hayabusa, which rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. But a new engine, called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), will have much more "oomph" than previous ones. That's because it uses a radio frequency generator, similar to transmitters used to broadcast radio shows, to heat the charged particles, or plasma."