Performance of a Quasi-Steady, Multi Megawatt, Coaxial Plasma Thruster

Download or read book Performance of a Quasi-Steady, Multi Megawatt, Coaxial Plasma Thruster written by National Aeronaut Administration (Nasa) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Los Alamos National Laboratory Coaxial Thruster Experiment (CTX) has been upgraded to enable the quasisteady operation of magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) type thrusters at power levels from 2 to 40 MW for 10 ms. Diagnostics include an eight position, three axis magnetic field probe to measure magnetic field fluctuations during the pulse; a triple Langmuir probe to measure ion density, electron temperature, and plasma potential; and a time-of-flight neutral particle spectrometer to measure specific impulse. Here we report on the experimental observations and associated analysis and interpretation of long-pulse, quasisteady, coaxial thruster performance in the CTX device. Scheuer, Jay T. and Schoenberg, Kurt F. and Henins, Ivars and Gerwin, Richard A. and Moses, Ronald W., Jr. and Garcia, Jose A. and Gribble, Robert F. and Hoyt, Robert P. and Black, Dorwin C. and Mayo, Robert M. Unspecified Center...