MW-class thruster experiments at NASA GRC

As the lead NASA center for electric propulsion, the Glenn Research Center is developing MW-class electric thrusters to meet a variety of future mission applications. A pulsed, high power MPD thruster test facility has been established at GRC, and preliminary voltage-current measurements have been o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: LaPointe, Michael R
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:As the lead NASA center for electric propulsion, the Glenn Research Center is developing MW-class electric thrusters to meet a variety of future mission applications. A pulsed, high power MPD thruster test facility has been established at GRC, and preliminary voltage-current measurements have been obtained with a MW-class baseline thruster design. Fabrication and testing of a flexure based thrust stand are being completed, and the stand is expected to be in service in the near future. The combined measurements of thrust, voltage, and current will provide sufficient information to determine thruster efficiency, and the near-term goal of the GRC test program is to design and demonstrate gas-fed MPD thrusters with efficiencies in excess of 50 percent. The close collaboration between modeling and experiment is anticipated to lead to the development of more efficient MW-class MPD thrusters that are capable of meeting the diverse and demanding in-space propulsion requirements envisioned by NASA mission planners.
ISSN:0094-243X