The ion drive exists and is (sorry was - mission terminated in dec 2001) functional on the space probe Deep Space 1. A picture of it can be found here:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981026.html

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Up the Imps!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: NottyImp on 2002-02-25 06:09 ]</font>