Performance characterization of a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster operated with water
Performance characterization of a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster operated with water
复制标题
用水操作的微型微波放电离子推进器的性能表征
DOI：
10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.12.031
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发表时间：
2019
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Komurasaki Kimiya
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nakagawa Yuichi;Koizumi Hiroyuki;Kawahara Hiroki;Komurasaki Kimiya
本文介绍了一种微波放电微型离子推进器的基本特性，该推进器使用水作为推进剂，而不是传统的氙气，旨在将来应用于立方体卫星。与任何其他推进剂相比，水在安全性、处理能力和可用性方面具有优势，这些特征对立方体卫星尤为重要。离子推力器由离子源和中和器组成，两者都使用电子回旋共振加热来产生等离子体。将水以蒸汽的形式送入离子推力器或中和剂，并进行直接推力测量。结果表明，离子源的推力修正系数为0.92 ± 0.074，束流加速电压大于0.80 kV，与氙离子推进器的典型值相近。在忽略中和剂的情况下，以较低的质量流量提取离子束，最大推力为164 ± 13.4 μN，最大比冲为665 ± 59 s。中和剂的电子发射电流为9.5 ± 0.08 mA，足以中和离子束。这些实验证明了微型水离子推进器的基本特点，以及水推进剂在立方体卫星上应用的可能性。
Fundamental characteristics of a microwave-discharge miniature ion thruster using water as a propellant, instead of the conventional xenon, are presented in this paper intended for future applications for CubeSats. Water has advantages in terms of safety, handling ability, and availability compared to any other propellant, and these features are especially important for CubeSats. The ion thruster consists of an ion source and a neutralizer, and both use an electron cyclotron resonance heating to generate the plasma. Water was fed to the ion thruster or the neutralizer as a vapor and the direct thrust measurement was conducted. As a result, the thrust correction factor of the ion source was 0.92 ± 0.074 with a beam acceleration voltage of over 0.80 kV, which was similar to the typical values for xenon ion thruster. The ion beam was extracted at the lower mass flow rate, the highest thrust was 164 ± 13.4 μN, and the highest specific impulse was 665 ± 59 s while neglecting the neutralizer. The electron emission current from the neutralizer was 9.5 ± 0.08 mA, which is sufficient to neutralize the ion beam. These experiments demonstrated the basic features of the miniature ion thruster using water and a future possibility of water propellant utilization for CubeSats.