A Multipropellant RF Plasma Thruster

This paper presents some preliminary estimates of the potential performance of a multipropellant RF plasma thruster and its format should be considered as a technical note. Interpolations of experimental results from similar devices found in the literature suggest that the first stage of such a thru...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on plasma science 2019-01, Vol.47 (1), p.44-46
Main Authors: Matveev, Igor B., Gessini, Paolo, Serbin, Serhiy I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Argon
Flow rates
Flow velocity
High power electric space propulsion
Mass flow rate
Performance evaluation
plasma torch
Plasmas
Propulsion
Radio frequency
RF plasma thruster
Specific impulse
Xenon
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Summary:This paper presents some preliminary estimates of the potential performance of a multipropellant RF plasma thruster and its format should be considered as a technical note. Interpolations of experimental results from similar devices found in the literature suggest that the first stage of such a thruster, based on well-established RF plasma torch technology, is essentially an electrothermal device. The specific impulse, in particular, is shown to be proportional to the square root of the specific power (power per unit mass flow rate).
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.2018.2884929