Neutral beam propulsion draws upon the technology used in heating tokamaks to develop globally neutral electric propulsion. This propulsion technology is advantageous when deflecting or otherwise interacting with asteroids, as traditional, quasi-neutral electric propulsion may produce undesirable charging of the asteroid’s surface. Gas diffusion neutralization is presented as the method for converting energetic argon ions to fast neutrals. The required gas density to achieve the highest neutralization for a given ion energy is presented. Sizing relations and thruster performance for a neutral beam are also presented. It is shown that neutral beams for space propulsion are feasible in terms of the required power and specific impulse. COMSOL simulations of the neutralization chamber were conducted in order to identify geometries that would reduce the flow rate required for neutralization.


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    Title :

    Design of a Gas Diffusion Neutralizer in Support of Neutral Beam Propulsion


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2019-03-14


    Size :

    8 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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