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Colloid Thruster — Taylor Cone Electrospray Propulsion

Interactive electrospray (colloid) thruster simulator: a conductive propellant meniscus deforms into a Taylor cone once the local field crosses the electrostatic onset threshold, then charged droplets or ions are accelerated across the extractor voltage — watch thrust, exhaust velocity and specific impulse respond in real time.

Aerospace Engineering & Orbital Mechanics3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Electrospray (colloid) thrusters are a real class of electric propulsion flying on precision spacecraft today: a conductive ionic-liquid propellant is held at a sharp emitter tip until the local electric field is strong enough to deform the meniscus into a Taylor cone, at which point charged droplets or bare ions are drawn off the apex and accelerated across an extractor voltage. This simulator renders a hex-packed emitter array in 3D, applies the actual onset-field criterion so the spray only ignites once the extractor voltage crosses threshold, and lets you sweep voltage, the droplet-versus-ion emission mode, mass flow rate and array size while thrust, exhaust velocity, specific impulse and beam current update live from the governing energy-balance equations.

⚙ Under the hood

Simulate an electrospray (colloid) thruster: a conductive propellant meniscus forms a Taylor cone once the local field crosses the electrostatic onset threshold, then charged droplets or ions are accelerated across the extractor voltage while thrust, exhaust velocity and specific impulse update live.

electric propulsioncolloid thrusterelectrosprayTaylor coneion beamspacecraft

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install