Calorimetric studies of microwave ion thruster

Abstract

The authors continue their work in the field of calorimetric studies of the parameters of an accelerated ionized gas jet of prototypes of microwave ion micro-thrusters with an energy consumption of up to 10 watts. This paper presents an improved calorimetric method. The introduction into the design of a heat receiver in the form of a thin screen makes it possible to allocate the thermal component formed by the passage of an electric current through the plasma in the accelerating gap. Calorimetric studies of the prototype with a two-electrode accelerating system are carried out at the same accelerating voltages and power of the microwave generator and different mass gas flow rates. It is shown that at a nitrogen consumption of 5,668•10–9 kg/s, the velocity of the mixed jet (neutral gas with ionized component) of the gas was 63,75 m/s, the jet thrust is 0,36 μN. With a nitrogen consumption of 1,611•10–8 kg/s, the speed of the mixed gas jet was 47,9 m/s, the jet thrust was 0,77 μN.

Keywords

• calorimeter
• microwave
• plasma
• small spacecraft
• nitrogen
• thrust
• speed
• thermal imager