ESA Moves Forward on New Electric Engine

museumpeace writes to tell us the ESA is reporting that they have confirmed the principle behind a new space thruster. Plasma Double Layers, first discovered by Australian researchers Christine Charles and Rod Boswell, may help to develop a new electric engine that gives more thrust than traditional engines while still maintaining efficiency. From the article: "In essence, a plasma double layer is the electrostatic equivalent of a waterfall. Just as water molecules pick up energy as they fall between the two different heights, so electrically charged particles pick up energy as they travel through the layers of different electrical properties."

Comments

A question for the physicists ...

[eldavojohn]

Ok, I RTFAed so don't be mad at me. I'm still not clear on something though stemming from this excerpt from the article:

Calculations suggest that a helicon double layer thruster would take up a little more space than the main electric thruster on ESA's SMART-1 mission, yet it could potentially deliver many times more thrust at higher powers of up to 100 kW whilst giving a similar fuel efficiency.

Is this saying that the energy used to propel the shuttle can now be deferred to depending on an electric source (for the 100kW)? I'm wondering if I should be excited about this new technology or if I should just give them a pat on the back for finding a different and possibly slightly better way to power an engine? I guess it's comparable in size but can rely more on electricity instead of solid fuel for thrust, correct?