The highly efficient multistage plasma (HEMP) thruster, a new electric propulsion concept derived from tube technology

Author

Kornfeld, G. ; Koch, N. ; Coustou, G.

Author_Institution

Thales Electron Devices GmbH, Ulm, Germany

fYear

2003

fDate

28-30 May 2003

Firstpage

3

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In this paper, a new Thales Electron Devices GmbH (TEDG) patented thruster concept is presented, which was successfully investigated. The results showed, that the concept advances the electric propulsion (EP) capabilities by relying on plasma confinement with the means of PPM structures used in TWTs to focus electron beams through delay lines and multistage depressed collectors (MDC). The performance improvements obtained recently are summarised. The total efficiency shown is the product of electrical and the ionisation efficiency. The ionisation efficiency approaches values close to 1 for higher Xe flows. For DM6 MS1 version, this is the case at Xe flows above 10 sccm, resulting at 14 sccm in a total efficiency of about 50%.

Keywords

electric propulsion; ion engines; ionisation; plasma devices; travelling wave tubes; TWTs; Thales electron devices GmbH; Xe; Xe flow; delay lines; electric propulsion; electrical efficiency; electron beams; highly efficient multistage plasma thruster; ionisation efficiency; multistage depressed collectors; plasma confinement; tube technology; Acceleration; Ion beams; Magnetic confinement; Plasma accelerators; Plasma confinement; Plasma measurements; Power systems; Propulsion; Satellites; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Vacuum Electronics, 2003 4th IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7699-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IVEC.2003.1285973

Filename

1285973