A Comprehensive Review of Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion Systems

Table 1

Performance of space propulsion systems [26] p.11.

Space propulsion		Specific impulse (s)	Max. (km/s)	Max. thrust (N)
Chemical	Solid [7]	250~310	5.7~7.1	10^7
	Liquid [7]	300~500	6.9~11.5	10^7
Nuclear	Fission [9, 10]	500~800	11.5~20.7	10^6
	Fusion [8, 27]	10,000~100,000	23~2,300	10^5
Electric	Electrothermal [13]	150~1,200	3.5~27.6	10^1
	Electrostatic [16–20]	1,200~10,000	27.6~230	3×10^-1
	Electromagnetic [28]	700~5,000	16.1~115	10^2
Propellantless	Photon Rocket [29]		Unlimited	10^-4

(velocity difference) assuming S/C consists of 90% propellant.