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Design of an RF ion thruster
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Botha, Johannes Rudolf |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | In order to examine methods of improving the lifespan and performance of electric thrusters, this paper investigates the method of microwave discharge ionisation for an electric thruster. This includes the design of an RF Ion Thruster with extraction and acceleration grids to generate thrust. A 600 W 2.45 GHz magnetron (obtained from a conventional microwave oven), coupled to circular TM010 resonant cavity, was used to ionise neutral argon gas. The process of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) was introduced to ensure the efficient ionisation of a high density plasma. Results yielded the success of the designed electromagnetic based thruster, measuring approximatively 1.78 mN of thrust with a specific impulse of Isp = 3786 seconds. The ECR process produced a high plasma density with a plasma absorption rate of approximately 77% of the total input microwave power. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.2514/6.2015-3815 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/86267/Botha%20JR_Design_2014.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2015-3815 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
