Spectral Investigation of SPT MAG Insulator Erosion

I. Main Assumptions and Experiment Statement The lifetime of Hall effect thrusters is one of its most important characteristic, which strongly depends on discharge chamber insulators erosion rate. In order to estimate the mass flux of the sputtered substance from the source exit, in the first approximation, the following relationship has been used: * Professor, Sub-faculty of Physics, [email protected]

Experimental Investigations of a Krypton Stationary Plasma Thruster

International audienceStationary plasma thrusters are attractive electric propulsion systems for spacecrafts. The usual propellant is xenon. Among the other suggested propellants, krypton could be one of the best candidates. Most studies have been carried out with a Hall effect thruster previously designed for xenon. The ATON A-3 developed by MSTU MIREA (Moscow) initially defined for xenon has been optimized for krypton. The stable high-performance ATON A-3 operation in Kr has been achieved after optimization of its magnetic field configuration and its optimization in different parameters: length and width of the channel, buffer volume dimensions, mode of the cathode operation, and input parameters. For a voltage of 400 V and the anode mass flow rate of 2.5 mg/s the anode efficiency reaches 60% and the specific impulse reaches 2900 s under A-3 operating with Kr. The achieved performances under operation A-3 with Kr are presented and compared with performances obtained with Xe

Experimental investigations of SPT operation on alternative to xenon gases - N2, Kr

[Poster - Id :430]International audienc