Objective
The main aim of the proposal is to obtain a significant background for the required progresses towards a second generation of Hall plasma thrusters (here below designed as SPT's) able to deliver high velocity xenon plasma flows with specific impulses in the range of 3000 s. This goal is related to the welcome requirements both for telecom satellites and for space missions. This background would be also of strong interest for looking at flexible thrusters able to provide, within a given device power, both high ISP at moderate thrust or high thrust at moderate ISP (dual mode thrusters). Due to limitations of the presently available simulation codes experimental studies are required in a significant extent: they are planned in this project through three of the tasks concerning complementary studies of three SPT's in similar wide ranges of operating discharge voltages. Both integral and physical characterisations are planned and such a wide set of data will give a significant view on high voltage SPT's operation and will be useful in terms of guidelines for the development of such second generation Hall thrusters. Moreover this set of data will be used in order to test the ability of the state of the art 2D hybrid codes to simulate in a proper way the same Hall thrusters operated in wide voltage and propellant mass flow regimes.
The progress towards a pure self- consistent and confident simulation code requires an improvement of physical knowledge for electron transport from external cathode to thrusters channel. An experimental investigation of this external plasma will give some insights on this critical point and is identified as task 4 in the project. The obtained data will be extremely useful for comparison with indications given by pure PIC codes as developed in the coordinator team.
The project will involve teams from NIS and INTAS countries well known for their competences in physics and development of SPT's. The fact that these teams have already established collaborations at a significant level, with joint publications, is of importance for the success of such an ambitious program involving 9 partners and mixing academic research teams and teams from space agency and from industry.
In conclusion, the studies to be developed in the frame of such project are devoted to:
- Acquiring a wide range set of data on integral characteristics of a PPS 1350 type thrusters operated in a wide range of discharge voltages (up to 1000 Volts).
- Acquiring physical insights on channel plasma and plume for a significant sampling of the above operating points, especially at high voltage.
- Obtaining a comparative set of data, especially in terms of ionisation-acceleration phenomena, on thrusters of significantly different design, operated in a similar wide voltage range.
- Characterising the external plasma between cathode and channel in a wide discharge voltage range and for two cathode designs.
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
Data not availableCoordinator
45071 Orléans Cedex2
France