Experimental characterisation of a small ring-cusp gridded ion engine using alternative propellants
Experimental characterisation of a small ring-cusp gridded ion engine using alternative propellants
Xenon is the preferred propellant for electric propulsion thrusters, providing high thruster efficiency and long life. However, xenon is extremely expensive and has limited availability, which could impose serious constraints on the use of electric propulsion in some future missions. This report presents the results of the experimental characterisation of a small ring-cusp discharge chamber using xenon (as baseline), krypton and a 1:4 Xe/Kr mixture: while the performance reduction when using krypton compared to xenon reflects the data available in the literature for thrusters of different sizes and types, some of the initial results for the mixture are encouraging for its viability and suitability to be used as propellant in GIEs. These results represent the worst-case scenario for alternative propellants, but it allows the identification of possible modifications (e.g. cathode geometry and ion optics geometry) that could reduce the gap between xenon and the selected alternative propellants. Finally, a noteworthy outcome of the measurements of the plasma parameters inside the discharge chamber is that the profile of the current density at the ion optics seems to be independent of the choice of propellant.
Gridded Ion Engine, Propellants, Xenon, Krypton
Electric Rocket Propulsion Society
Fazio, Nazareno
16e21134-c70e-462a-ab8e-2882b154e89f
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Gabriel, Stephen B.
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259
Bosi, Franco
77179c05-c17b-432d-a4a2-12ace1f780ee
Guarducci, Francesco
63d82286-534e-433a-b889-92d5d50adab6
23 June 2024
Fazio, Nazareno
16e21134-c70e-462a-ab8e-2882b154e89f
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Gabriel, Stephen B.
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259
Bosi, Franco
77179c05-c17b-432d-a4a2-12ace1f780ee
Guarducci, Francesco
63d82286-534e-433a-b889-92d5d50adab6
Fazio, Nazareno, Golosnoy, Igor O., Gabriel, Stephen B., Bosi, Franco and Guarducci, Francesco
(2024)
Experimental characterisation of a small ring-cusp gridded ion engine using alternative propellants.
In Proceedings of the 38th International Electric Propulsion Conference 2024.
Electric Rocket Propulsion Society.
15 pp
.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Xenon is the preferred propellant for electric propulsion thrusters, providing high thruster efficiency and long life. However, xenon is extremely expensive and has limited availability, which could impose serious constraints on the use of electric propulsion in some future missions. This report presents the results of the experimental characterisation of a small ring-cusp discharge chamber using xenon (as baseline), krypton and a 1:4 Xe/Kr mixture: while the performance reduction when using krypton compared to xenon reflects the data available in the literature for thrusters of different sizes and types, some of the initial results for the mixture are encouraging for its viability and suitability to be used as propellant in GIEs. These results represent the worst-case scenario for alternative propellants, but it allows the identification of possible modifications (e.g. cathode geometry and ion optics geometry) that could reduce the gap between xenon and the selected alternative propellants. Finally, a noteworthy outcome of the measurements of the plasma parameters inside the discharge chamber is that the profile of the current density at the ion optics seems to be independent of the choice of propellant.
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Published date: 23 June 2024
Venue - Dates:
Electric International Propulsion Conference 2024, , Toulouse, France, 2024-06-23 - 2024-06-28
Keywords:
Gridded Ion Engine, Propellants, Xenon, Krypton
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 491465
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/491465
PURE UUID: 4d0141f0-0f31-4c39-92b5-cf68247a71c7
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Date deposited: 24 Jun 2024 17:03
Last modified: 11 Jul 2024 04:36
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Contributors
Author:
Nazareno Fazio
Author:
Igor O. Golosnoy
Author:
Stephen B. Gabriel
Author:
Franco Bosi
Author:
Francesco Guarducci
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