Thruster

A thruster is a propulsive device used by spacecraft and watercraft for station keeping, attitude control, in the reaction control system, or long-duration, low-thrust acceleration.

Spacecraft thrusters

• Rocket engine, using exothermic chemical reactions of the propellant(s)
• Electrohydrodynamic thruster, using ionized air (only for use in an atmosphere)
• Electrostatic ion thruster, using high-voltage electrodes
• Ion thruster, using beams of ions accelerated electrically
• Hall effect thruster, a type of ion thruster
• Pulsed inductive thruster, a pulsed form of ion thruster
• Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, electric propulsion using the Lorentz force
• Electrodeless plasma thruster, electric propulsion using ponderomotive force
• Pulsed plasma thruster, using current arced across a solid propellant

Marine thrusters

• Azimuth thruster, pod underneath a ship, instead of a propeller and rudder
• Bow thruster, or stern thruster, at the bow or the stern of a ship or boat
• Rim-driven thruster, electric motor and propeller combined in single unit

Others

• Avio Delta Thruster, a Bulgarian ultralight trike design
• Thruster (surfing) is a surfboard fin design
• Thruster T600 Sprint, a British ultralight aircraft
• Shkadov thruster, hypothetical megascale reaction for moving a star
• Hurrying, also called 'coal thrusting', a 19th-century profession
• Big Mother Thruster
• Plasma Thruster
• Thruster (crossfit), a combination of a front squat and a push press: starting with the barbell in the rack position, the athlete squats (hips below knees) and then stands, driving the barbell overhead.