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.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    An 8-cm electron bombardment thruster for auxiliary propulsion


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1973-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    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