Electrospray ionization enters the final frontier: Mass spectrometry's role in understanding electrospray thrusters and their plumes

Electrospray thrusters using ionic liquid (IL)‐based propellants are quickly gaining popularity in spacecraft design. Mass spectrometry is especially well‐suited to provide important knowledge on the fundamentals of how these systems work and on evaluating their efficiencies and impacts, given that the operating principles of electrospray thrusters closely mimics the mass spectrometry experiment – in both ions are generated by electrospray and then enter a vacuum. Here, electrospray thruster technology and IL‐based propellants are briefly introduced. This introduction is then followed by a discussion of mass spectrometry's current contribution to the study of IL‐based electrospray thrusters – with a focus on electrospray, dissociation, and spectroscopy studies – and a brief discussion of areas ripe for immediate contributions from the mass spectrometry community.