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Showing 1 to 20 of 22 for “"plasma thruster"”.
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Design of a cusped field plasma thruster
A plasma space propulsion thruster has been designed. It is classified as a Cusped Field Thruster (CFT), which refers to the geometry of the magnetic field that influences the flow of electrons and ions. The thruster was modeled after an original Diverging Cusped Field Thruster (DCFT) developed at …
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Propulsion mechanisms in a helicon plasma thruster
Electric thrusters offer an attractive option for various in-space propulsion tasks due to their high thrust efficiencies. The performance characteristics of a compact electric thruster utilizing a helicon plasma source is investigated with the goal of identifying potential thrust mechanisms. …
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Fully kinetic numerical modeling of a plasma thruster
A Hall effect plasma thruster with conductive acceleration channel walls was numerically modeled using 2D3V Particle-in-Cell (PIC) and Monte-Carlo Collision (MCC) methodolo- gies. Electron, ion, and neutral dynamics were treated kinetically on the electron time scale to study transport, …
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Micro-Nozzle Simulation and Test for an Electrothermal Plasma Thruster
… known as Pocket Rocket, is an electrothermal plasma micro-thruster.</p> <p>Pocket Rocket uses a capacitively coupled plasma, generated by radio-frequency, in order to provide neutral gas heating via ion-neutral collisions within a gas discharge tube. When compared to a cold-gas thruster of …
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Divergent Plume Reduction of a High-Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster
<p>High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thrusters (HEMPTs) are a relatively new form of electric propulsion that show promise for use on a variety of missions and have several advantages over their older EP competitors. One such advantage is their long predicted lifetime and minimal wall erosion due …
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Hollow Plume Mitigation of a High-Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster
<p>Since 2000, a relatively new electric thruster concept has been in research, development, and production at Thales Electron Devices in Germany. This High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster, or HEMPT, has promising lifetime capabilities due to its plasma confinement system. However, the …
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Empirical aspects of a Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster Experiment (mHTX@MIT)
A helicon plasma source experiment has been developed and then constructed in the MIT Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPL) vacuum chamber. This experiment allows study of the intrinsic advantages of efficient helicon plasma production for use in space electric propulsion. Historical helicon experiment …
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Investigation of Plume Expansion and Target Surface Characteristics of a Micro Laser Plasma Thruster for Satellite Application
Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-06T18:56:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Reilly_Michael_P_MS.pdf: 55061972 bytes, checksum: e94f783552dd14bb02f96ea4b7b7e8db (MD5) Reilly_Michael_P_MS_ABS.pdf: 962544 bytes, checksum: 04b8b5608a5716a486cefb523e29791f (MD5) license.txt: 4813 bytes, checksum: …
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Development of the plasma thruster particle-in-cell simulator to complement empirical studies of a low-power cusped-field thruster
Cusped-field plasma thrusters are an electric propulsion concept being investigated by several laboratories in the United States and Europe. This technology was implemented as a low-power prototype in 2007 to ascertain if durability and performance improvements over comparable Hall thruster designs …
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Characterization of a green electric solid propellant for electric propulsion
… also being considered for use in ablative pulsed plasma thruster and multimode systems. In this work, the behavior and performance of a novel green electric solid propellant operating in an electrothermal ablation-fed pulsed plasma thruster was investigated. Using an inverted pendulum micro-Newton …
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Transient antenna-plasma interaction in inductive plasma thrusters
An electric thruster using material sourced from beyond Earth as propellant would unlock new possibilities for the exploration and exploitation of space. Compared to other technologies under consideration, inductive plasma thrusters are a promising candidate due to their high thrust density and …
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Development and simulation of a cylindrical cusped-field thruster and a diagnostics tool for plasma-materials interactions
A low power, Hall-effect type plasma thruster known as the MIT-Cylindrical Cusped- Field Thruster (MIT-CCFT) has been developed and simulated using a fully-kinetic plasma model, the Plasma Thruster particle-in-cell (PTpic) model. Similar to the Diverging Cusped-Field Thruster (DCFT) previously …
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Thermal Modelling and Validation of Heat Profiles in an RF Plasma Micro-Thruster
… suitable for nanosatellites is an electrothermal plasma thruster called Pocket Rocket. Pocket Rocket is a low-power, low-cost propulsion platform specifically designed for use in nanosatellites such as CubeSats. Due to difficulties associated with integrating propulsion devices onto spacecraft …
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Development and characterization of a diverging cusped field thruster and a lanthanum hexaboride hollow cathode
A low power, magnetically confined plasma thruster has been developed and undergone preliminary characterization. The design employs cusped magnetic fields arranged in a divergent fashion to confine electron flow to an anode while providing efficient acceleration of an ion beam, similar to …
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Electrode Geometry Effects in an Electrothermal Plasma Microthruster
… National University (ANU), is an electrothermal plasma thruster known as Pocket Rocket (PR). This device heats neutral propellant gas by exposing it to a Capacitively Coupled Plasma (CCP), then expels the heated gas to produce thrust. Significant work has gone towards understanding how PR creates …
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Propellant Surface Temperature and Plume Characteristics of Micro-Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
The micro-Pulsed Plasma Thruster is a device capable of supplying discrete impulses for propulsive maneuvering of small satellites. These devices suffer from low propellant utilization related to late-time propellant ablation, causing a drop in specific impulse and thruster efficiency. The exhaust …
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Experimental and numerical validation of ion extractor grids
"The experimental plasma thruster named the Helicon Injected Inertial Plasma Electrostatic Rocket (HIIPER) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is currently being investigated. HIIPER features an Inertial Electrostatic Con nement (IEC) grid that is made asymmetrical by cutting …
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Performance characterization and optimization of a diverging cusped field thruster with a calibrated counter-weighted millinewton thrust stand
The previously developed Diverging Cusped Field Thruster (DCFT) has undergone further investigations and performance characterization. The DCFT is a magnetically conned plasma thruster that uses cusped magnetic fields to confine electron ow and reduce losses to the walls. The magnetic confinement …
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3D plume modeling of SPT-100
Hall thrusters are a spacecraft propulsion device for orbit maintenance and north-south station keeping. One of the concerns about Hall thrusters is the sputtering of high energy ions which could result in the erosion of sensitive surface coatings used for solar cell elements and thermal control. …
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A mechanism to accelerate the late ablation in pulsed plasma thrusters
Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) are long standing electric propulsion thrusters that are reliable, relatively simple and low cost. One of the main issues with the PPT is its poor utilization of the propellant and low efficiency. Typically only 40-60% of the propellant contributes to the production …
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