The magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster is potentially capable of providing 20-200 N of steady-state thrust, at 1000-20,000 s specific impulse while consuming a variety of propellants and megawatts of DC power. The specific impulse and power capacity put the MPD thruster in a class separate from other electric propulsion engines. Several types of missions are enhanced by the unique capabilities of a nuclear-electric driven MPD thruster and these include earth-orbit raising, cis-lunar transportation, and planetary exploration. This paper describes current MPD thruster technology, and several missions typical of the above cited categories.
A review of the multimegawatt MPD thruster and current mission applications
1986-06-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Measured performance of a multimegawatt MPD thruster
NTRS | 1983
|Measured performance of a multimegawatt MPD thruster
AIAA | 1983
|Multimegawatt power distribution considerations
Tema Archive | 1986
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