Plasma Railgun with Capillary–Porous Electrodes

— A scheme of a spacecraft thruster based on pulsed plasma railgun with capillary–porous electrodes is proposed. Electrodes of this kind are renewable and do not degrade while their lifetime is limited by the stored amount of the filler metal of the capillary–porous electrode. Operating regimes in w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plasma physics reports 2021-04, Vol.47 (4), p.362-368
Main Authors: Martynenko, Yu. V., Nagel’, M. Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic
Electrodes
Filler metals
Gallium
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Plasma Dynamics
Railguns
Specific impulse
Tungsten
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Summary:— A scheme of a spacecraft thruster based on pulsed plasma railgun with capillary–porous electrodes is proposed. Electrodes of this kind are renewable and do not degrade while their lifetime is limited by the stored amount of the filler metal of the capillary–porous electrode. Operating regimes in which capillary–porous electrodes are efficient are found. In these regimes, the proposed railgun construction can yield the thrust of several newtons and specific impulse of several tens of km/s. Li, Sn, and Ga can be used as filler metals of capillary–porous electrodes with porous mats made from molybdenum or tungsten.
ISSN:1063-780X
1562-6938
DOI:10.1134/S1063780X21040073