Thruster size, beam current level, and specific impulse trade-offs are considered for mercury electron bombardment ion thrusters to be used for north-south station keeping of geosynchronous spacecraft. An 8-cm diameter thruster operating at 2750 seconds specific impulse at thrust levels of 4.4 mN (1 m1b) to 8.9 mN (2 m6b) with a design life of 20,000 hours and 10,000 cycles is being developed. The thruster will have a dished two-grid system capable of thrust vectoring of + or - 10 degrees in two orthogonal directions. A preliminary thruster has been fabricated and tested; thruster performance characteristics have been determined at 4.45, 6.68, and 8.90 millinewtons. (Author)


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    Title :

    An 8-cm Electron Bombardment Thruster for Auxiliary Propulsion


    Contributors:
    W. R. Hudson (author) / B. A. Banks (author)

    Publication date :

    1973


    Size :

    13 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    An 8-cm electron bombardment thruster for auxiliary propulsion

    Hudson, W. R. / Banks, B. A. | NTRS | 1973


    An 8-cm electron bombardment thruster for auxiliary propulsion

    Hudson, W. R. / Banks, B. A. | NTRS | 1973



    Electron bombardment thruster technology

    FORRESTER, A. / GOLDIN, D. / LEAR, C. | AIAA | 1969