Starlink satellites use krypton instead of xenon for electric propulsion to reduce operational costs
Studies confirm that krypton is evaluated and used as a lower-cost alternative to xenon in electric propulsion to reduce operational expenses, despite some trade-offs in efficiency.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the premise that krypton is studied and utilized as an alternative to xenon in electric propulsion systems specifically to mitigate the high costs associated with xenon, even though krypton presents certain performance trade-offs.
Chawdhury NHA. Comparative Performance Analysis of Xenon, Krypton, and Argon Propellants for Hall Thrusters Using a Reproducible Machine-learning Framework. 2026. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-10159095/v1
Paper 7 notes that xenon is the reference propellant due to its high performance, but cost and supply concerns motivate the evaluation of krypton as a practical compromise between performance and cost.
See more details
S. Asmolovskyi, D.K. Voronovskyi, S.M. Kulahin, V.V. Maslov, V. Pererva, A.O. Troian, B.V. Yurkov. Parameters of the ST-40M Hall-effect thruster in its operation on xenon and krypton. 2025. https://doi.org/10.15407/itm2025.04.043
Paper 11 states that the high cost of xenon significantly affects overall expenses, prompting research into alternative propellants like krypton to reduce operating costs.
The paper trail · every fact has a biography
Challenge the receipt
Citation formatting by citeproc-js (Frank Bennett) and the Citation Style Language project. Source and licenses.
Terms · Privacy · How verdicts work · Dispute this receipt