Electrical breakdowns have been observed during ion thruster operation. These breakdowns, or arcs, can be caused by several conditions. In flight systems, the power processing unit must be designed to handle these faults autonomously. This has a strong impact on power processor requirements and must be understood fully for the power processing unit being designed for the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness program. In this study, fault conditions were investigated using a NASA 30 cm ion thruster and a power console. Power processing unit output specifications were defined based on the breakdown phenomena identified and characterized.
Recycle Requirements for NASA's 30 cm Xenon Ion Thruster
1994
13 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Electric & Ion Propulsion , Rocket Engines & Motors , Unmanned Spacecraft , Fault tolerance , Ion engines , Ion propulsion , Rocket engine design , Self adaptive control systems , Xenon , Electric arcs , Electrical faults , Electromechanics , Power supply circuits , Consoles , Electrical resistivity , Failure analysis , Power conditioning , Technology utilization
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