The future of spacecraft can be seen in NASA’s ion engine

After more than seven years of travelling across the solar system, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has finally reached the last part of its mission which involves orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres and sending back images and data. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Dawn, however, is that rather than moving using traditional rockets, the spacecraft uses an electrically-powered ion engine. It is this kind of engine that the next generation of spacecraft will use.