Conveners
6.3 Plasma Thrusters
- Alexey Shashurin (Purdue University)
Plasma surface interactions are an important aspect of spacecraft design. The spacecraft surfaces present in the backflow region of the plume can acquire a negative potential, attracting slow moving charge exchanged ions created in the core plume region[1]. The ions accelerating towards the surface can cause surface sputtering on protective coating present on the solar panels. In previous...
Due to their high feasibility and flexibility CubeSats has found increasingly extensive applications in various research fields, and with an on-board propulsion system the capabilities and service lifespan can be significantly enhanced. Electrical propulsion system recommended by its high efficiency and low threat to the primary payload is a promising candidate and usually utilizes an ignitor...
Addition of the acceleration stage to the micro-cathode vacuum arc thruster (μCAT) allows increase of the thrust and the specific impulse and finally the overall efficiency of such miniature thruster for CubeSats. In this work, we propose to use a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) approach for such improvement.
Significant advantages of the μCAT-MPD approach in comparison with gridded ion...
Vacuum arc thrusters are an interesting technology for generation of uN thrust pulses suitable for position control. The simplicity and compact design due to its solid fuel make it particularly interesting for small satellite applications. By now the limiting factor for the usage of vacuum arc thruster is the reliability of the system which limits the current pule number to about one million....
Increased use of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) for space applications presents an opportunity of using these structures as a fuel source for thruster operation. Typical CFRP structures used for space applications are designed to handle take-off loading and stresses. This results in an oversized and overweight component in orbit. To take advantage of excess weight an array of...
A 100 W radial scaled Hall Thruster has been designed and manufactured using as reference design the D-55 thruster with anode layer (TAL). The magnetic field required is provided by permanent magnets following a modular design in order to compare three different magnetic field configurations: A) nominal, B) orthogonal magnetic field and C) high magnetic field. In Hall Thrusters the magnetic...
