Iodine has the potential to be a mission-enabling propellant for electric propulsion; however, iodine as the working gas in a hollow cathode presents many challenges. Iodine propellant was compared with a typical propellant, xenon, in both cathode operation and plume properties. In this work, a low-current ( < 5    A ) barium oxide hollow cathode was operated on xenon and iodine propellants. Its discharge current and voltage, and plume properties in the near-keeper region are reported for xenon and iodine with the cathode at similar operating conditions for each. The cathode operating on iodine required higher power for ignition and discharge maintenance compared with xenon, as evidenced by higher keeper and anode potentials. Plasma properties in the near-keeper region were measured using an emissive probe and single Langmuir probe. For both propellants, the plasma density, electron energy distribution function, electron temperature, select reaction rate coefficients, and time-resolved plasma potentials are reported. For both propellants, the cathode operated the same keeper (0.25 A) and discharge current (3.1 A), but the keeper and anode potentials were higher with iodine: 27 and 51 V for xenon, and 30 and 65 V for iodine, respectively. For both propellants, the electron distribution was best represented by a drifting Maxwellian, characterized by an electron temperature and drift energy. For xenon, the mean electron energy and electron temperature were 7.5 and 0.7 eV, with bulk drift energy of 6.6 eV. For iodine, the mean electron energy and electron temperature were 6.3 and 1.3 eV, with bulk energy of 4.2 eV. A literature review of relevant collisional processes and associated cross sections for an iodine plasma is also presented.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Characterization of a Barium Oxide Cathode Operating on Xenon and Iodine Propellants


    Beteiligte:

    Erschienen in:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2020-04-24


    Format / Umfang :

    11 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch