High power arcjet

The activities of the High Power Arcjet Project (HIPARC) from August 1990 to January 1991 are discussed. In this period the HIPARC thruster was ignited for the first time. Power levels up to 140 kW with a mass flow rate of 300 mg/s hydrogen were reached. Specific impulse values of more than 1300 s were shown to be possible. Tests were performed with the baseline thruster version only, which has a 6 mm throat diameter and a conical nozzle with a 20 degree half angle. Measurement data summing up all tests carried out until now is included. All measuring methods are described, including a check on possible error sources

High power arcjet

The activities on the development of the high power arc jet HIPARC, the thrust balance, and plasma diagnostic probes are discussed. Modifications of the HIPARC design and a synopsis of the materials used are given. Further experimental results with the TT30 thruster in the 50 kW range are presented. Some first calibration measurements of the thrust balance are also included. Progress concerning the development of plasma diagnostic devices is documented

Velocity and total pressure measurements in the two-stage hybrid thruster tihtus

A novel two-stage thermal-inductive hybrid thruster of the Universität Stuttgart (TIHTUS) is under development at the Institut für Raumfahrt-systeme (IRS). It provides the possibility to supply power and mass-flow through either stage into the plasma. A variation of power- and mass-flow-staging was investigated with a Pitot probe and an electric time-of-flight probe. The present paper discloses the radially resolved measurement results of total pressure and plasma velocity at a downstream position of 200 mm. Furthermore, a method is presented to access radially resolved flow temperature from the combined pressure and velocity measurement. The temperature data are also presented. For a sum of powers of 50 kW at 300 mg/s, the Pitot pressure maximum is at 85 Pa while maximum velocity is measured as 9,224 and 10,350 m/s for two respective conditions. On the plume axis, the temperatures reach up to 9000 K

Adaptive Computation of the Current-Carrying Plasma in an MPD Rocket Thruster

This paper will present numerical methods and results for the adaptive computation of a hot-anode MPD thruster currently being operated at the Institut fur Raumfahrtsysteme