The Water Electrolysis Hall Effect Thruster (WET-HET): Paving the Way to Dual Mode Chemical-Electric Propulsion

水电解霍尔效应推进器 (WET-HET)：为双模式化学-电力推进铺平道路

• 批准号: 92812
• 金额: $ 43.98万
• 依托单位: URA THRUSTERS LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=92812
• 关键词: Water; Electrolysis; Hall; Effect; Thruster

Most satellites built to date manoeuvre in space using two very different types of thrusters and propellants. High thrust functions are met by extremely toxic chemical fuels (Hydrazine) that are costly and challenging to handle as they are lethal to humans from brief exposure. Where high fuel efficiency is required and low thrust can be accepted, electric propulsion (EP) thrusters are used, fed by expensive high purity noble gas (Xenon), stored at very high pressure. These two entirely separate systems are both present on many larger spacecraft platforms to cover the full required ranges of thrust and fuel efficiency. Alternative low-cost and non-toxic propellants have been increasingly adopted for small satellites, where their price and handling advantages have a particularly high impact.Our project's ultimate goal is to replace both Xenon and Hydrazine with water, the ultimate green, low-cost propellant, for both chemical and electric propulsion functions in large satellites. The proposed HYDRA system concept electrolyses water on-demand during a mission into oxygen and hydrogen. The project is focussed on the EP sub-system: development of a Water ElecTrolysis Hall Effect Thruster (WET-HET), which ionises and accelerates positively charged oxygen to the very high speeds required for fuel efficiency. This is combined with an electron-emitting hollow cathode device, fed with hydrogen, required to keep the spacecraft charge-neutral. Both of these device types have not been used with those propellants in spaceflight to date. For the higher thrust impulses required by the satellite, these two gasses will in addition be used in a chemical bipropellant thruster, ICE. This allows a spacecraft to fly with both fuel efficient electrical and high thrust chemical propulsion options, but a single low pressure water propellant tank, propellant management system, and associated hardware. This completely novel overall architecture allows a full spectrum of mission scenarios that are not possible with either technology alone, without the cost and mass penalties of flying two completely separate systems and propellants, at the very low propellant price and high storage density of water.The project focusses on the technical and engineering challenge of adapting existing technology concepts of Hall Effect thrusters and neutralizers to run on the unconventional oxygen and hydrogen fuels, in prototypes with sufficiently high performance and lifetime. Work will focus on all aspects of these two device designs from material selection to manufacturability, and culminate in extensive test campaigns in vacuum chambers to simulate the conditions of space.

迄今为止建造的大多数卫星使用两种截然不同的推进器和推进剂在空间进行机动。高推力功能由剧毒化学燃料（肼）满足，这些燃料成本高且处理起来具有挑战性，因为它们在短暂接触时对人类是致命的。在需要高燃料效率并且可以接受低推力的情况下，使用电推进（EP）推进器，由储存在非常高的压力下的昂贵的高纯度惰性气体（氙）提供燃料。这两个完全独立的系统都存在于许多较大的航天器平台上，以覆盖推力和燃料效率的全部所需范围。替代的低成本和无毒推进剂已越来越多地用于小型卫星，其价格和处理优势具有特别高的影响，我们的项目的最终目标是用水替代氙和肼，水是最终的绿色、低成本推进剂，用于大型卫星的化学和电推进功能。所提出的HYDROGEN系统概念在使命期间按需将水电解成氧气和氢气。该项目的重点是EP子系统：水电解霍尔效应推进器（WET-HET）的开发，该推进器将带正电的氧气电离并加速到燃油效率所需的非常高的速度。这与一个发射电子的空心阴极装置相结合，该装置被注入氢气，以保持航天器的电中性。迄今为止，这两种类型的装置都没有在航天飞行中与这些推进剂一起使用。对于卫星所需的更高推力脉冲，这两种气体将另外用于化学双组元推进器ICE。这使得航天器可以同时使用燃料效率高的电力和高推力化学推进选项，但只有一个低压水推进剂箱，推进剂管理系统和相关硬件。这种完全新颖的整体架构允许全方位的使命场景，这是单独使用任何一种技术都不可能实现的，而没有飞行两个完全独立的系统和推进剂的成本和质量损失，在非常低的推进剂价格和水的高存储密度。该项目的重点是技术和工程的挑战，适应现有的霍尔效应推进器和中和器的技术概念上运行的非传统的氧和氢燃料，在原型具有足够高的性能和寿命。工作将集中在这两个设备设计的各个方面，从材料选择到可制造性，并最终在真空室中进行广泛的测试活动，以模拟太空条件。