Analytical plasma modelling and design upgrade for an ECR thruster operating on water and ammonia propellants
Author(s)
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Electrodeless plasma thrusters, and in particular Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) thrusters, are attracting an increasing amount of commercial and academic interest by virtue of their ability to function without a neutralizer. This opens the door to operation with a wide range of alternative propellants all the while ensuring mitigation of some of the major life limiting erosion issues plaguing established technologies like Gridded Ion Engines and Hall Effect Thrusters. Building on the success of the proof-of-concept ECR thruster AQUAJET, the AQUAJET|NJET|XJET consortium, comprised of AVS UK Ltd., the University of Surrey, STFC ISIS, Viper RF, and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., have undertaken a follow on project to design, build, and test an improved thruster model capable of operating on water, xenon, and ammonia propellants. In the context of this project, analytical plasma modelling of water and ammonia discharges was undertaken. In the case of water discharge, these analyses revealed that at low electron temperatures (less than 6 eV) a significant fraction of energy is being dissipated to molecular dissociation. These analyses also allowed us to conclude that ammonia discharge can be expected to be slightly better than water in terms of power efficiency. Feasibility of ammonia operation was thus confirmed. We also describe the design upgrade of the AQUAJET breadboard, namely the improvements made to its microwave line, and to several of its key components.
Date Issued
2019-09-15
Date Acceptance
2019-09-15
Publisher
Electric Rocket Propusion Society
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s).
Source
36th International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC 2019)
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2019-09-15
Finish Date
2019-09-20
Coverage Spatial
Vienna, Austria