The performance of quasisteady multimegawatt MPD thrusters is significantly affected by anode thickness, location, and orifice radius, and by cathode length. Terminal voltage oscillations and electrode erosion are deferred until higher currents by anodes at more downstream locations and of smaller orifice radius and by cathodes of greater length. Without an optimized geometry, specific impulses of 3300 s and thrust efficiencies up to 31 % are implied by the best data.
Effect of thrust chamber configuration on MPD arcjet performance
Einfluss der Schubkammerform auf die Leistung von MPD-Bogenstrahlen
1981
14 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 11 Quellen
Conference paper
English