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Dr. Robert Goddard, the American rocket pioneer had examined the subject as early as 1906. This led to this theory, which Goddard had mentioned the possibility of accelerating electrically charged particles to very high velocities without the need for high temperatures.1 Historically the concept was called electric propulsion, which, considered the electrically charge particles, was referred. The work was lost, and rather rediscovered at after WWII when Dr. Vaun Braun, told the people who would later form nasa, to go study the work of his mentor. As a result, Stuhlinger studied. As it states here "Studies in electric propulsion became more frequent following WWII, and in 1955 Stuhlinger presented a paper at the International Astronautical Congress in Vienna entitled, "Possibilities of Electrical Space Ship Propulsion." During his presentation, Stuhlinger discussed a proposal made by von Braun two years earlier"" 1. In the Ion thruster article, also in wikipedia, it has Culminated in the launch of the Dawn Space craft by Nasa in 1999. 1

There are now new developements to expand the field beyond and possibly to mars or saturn This will involve even bigger arrays of ion thrusters

1.Mike Wright, April 6 1999, Ion propulsion - over 50 years in the making science.nasa.gov http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/prop06apr99_2.htm