NASA’s solar-electric propulsion engine and a real-world lightsaber (sort of)

1) NASA has posted an image of a solar-electric propulsion engine currently in development. The engine, which uses xenon ions, burns blue, and NASA is considering using the engine as part of its asteroid retrieval initiative. The engine is being tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This image was taken at JPL through a porthole during testing.

NASA has released this image of the solar-electric propulsion thruster
currently in developmentand undergoing tests at JPL.
An earlier version of the engine is being used on the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

(NASA via Mashable)