A theoretical study of a xenon cusp ion thruster, a discharge chamber of which has a hemispherical shape with a three-grid-beam-acceleration electrode system, is described. An analysis for a discharge plasma, is carried out on the basis of the free-fall model obtained by Tonks and Langmuir, but several assumptions are introduced to consider a ring-cusp magnetic field. A numerical technique used to obtain as effective transparency of the grid system to ions is a convergent, two dimensional numerical model for cylindrically symmetric beamlets. Simple algebraic equations are developed that can be used to calculate an ion beam production cost and an average Maxwellian electron temperature in a discharge chamber. These properties are calculated as functions of a propellant mass flow rate and a propellant utilization efficiency. The theoretical results for the ion beam production cost are compared with those obtained through an experiment. It is shown that the calculated results agree well with the measured ones.
Ion beam production cost of a xenon cusp ion thruster
Kosten der Ionenstrahlerzeugung in einem Xenon-Ionisator
AIAA-Papers ; May ; 1-9
1987
9 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 12 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Ion beam production cost of a xenon cusp ion thruster
AIAA | 1987
|Investigation on a 13-cm xenon cusp ion thruster
AIAA | 1987
|Investigation on a 13-cm xenon cusp ion thruster
Tema Archive | 1987
|