The discharge chambers of mercury ion thrusters are modeled so the principal effects and processes which govern discharge plasma properties and thruster performance are described. The conservation relations for mass, charge, and energy when applied to the Maxwellian electron population in the ion production region yield equations which may be made one-dimensional by the proper choice of coordinates. Solutions to these equations with the appropriate boundary conditions give electron density and temperature profiles that agree reasonably well with measurements. It is then possible to estimate plasma properties from thruster design data and those operating parameters which are directly controllable. By varying the operating parameter inputs to the computer code written to solve these equations, performance curves are obtained which agree quite well with measurement.
Plasma property and performance prediction for mercury ion thrusters
Plasmaeigenschaft und Leistungsvorhersage fuer einen Ionenantrieb mit Quecksilber-Ionen
1981
27 Seiten, 9 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 21 Quellen
Conference paper
English