The United States Air Force (USAF) Research Laboratory's Electric Propulsion Space Experiment (ESEX) was launched and successfully operated - demonstrating the compatibility and readiness of a 26 kW ammonia arcjet subsystem for satellite applications. ESEX is one of nine experiments on the USAF's Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). Data were acquired to characterize the thruster in four different areas: electromagnetic interactions, contamination effects, optical properties of the plume, and thruster system performance. The results demonstrated that the critical system components (including the arcjet, power processor, and propellant system) operated well, and verified the interoperability of high power electric propulsion with generic satellite operations.
Overview of the On-Orbit Results from the Electric Propulsion Space Experiment (ESEX)
2001
43 pages
Report
No indication
English
Electric & Ion Propulsion , Astronautics , Orbits , Space environments , Test vehicles , Electric propulsion , Optical properties , United states , Experimental data , Interoperability , Performance(Engineering) , Observation , Processing equipment , Electromagnetic radiation , Artificial satellites , Contamination , Thrusters , Criticality(General) , Esex(Electric propulsion space experiment)
FULL-LENGTH PAPERS - Electric Propulsion Space Experiment (ESEX) On-Orbit Results
Online Contents | 2002
|Electric Propulsion Space Experiment (ESEX)
AIAA | 2002
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