ELECTRO STATIC PROPULSION

Electric propulsion achieves high specific impulse by the acceleration of

charged particles to high velocity.

The charged particles are produced by ionization of a propellant gas, which

creates both ions and electrons and forms what is called a plasma.

Plasma is then a collection of the various charged particles that are free to
move in response to fields they generate or fields that are applied to the
collection and, on the average, is almost electrically neutral.

Modem ion and Hall thrusters operating on xenon propellant have exhaust
velocities in the range of 20-40 km/s and 10-20 km/s, respectively.
 • Ion Bombardment
• Ion contact
Electrostatic
• Colloid Ion
• Hall Effect (SPT,TAL)
Ion thrusters employ a variety of plasma generation techniques to ionize a large
fraction of the propellant.

These thrusters then utilize biased grids to electrostatically extract ions from
the plasma and accelerate them to high velocity at voltages up to and exceeding
10 kV.

Ion thrusters feature the highest efficiency (from 60% to >80%) and very high
specific impulse (from 2000 to over 10,000 s) compared to other thruster types.
ION THRUSTER SYSTEM
• Plasma Generator
• Accelerator Grids
• Neutralizer Cathodes

The schematic figures shows the cross section of an electronbombardment ion thruster
that uses an electron discharge to generate the plasma.
An ion thruster consists of basically three components:
• The plasma generator,
• the accelerator grids,
• and the neutralizer cathode.

The discharge cathode and anode represent the plasma generator in this thruster, and
ions from this region flow to the grids and are accelerated to form the thrust beam.

The plasma generator is at high positive voltage compared to the spacecraft or space
plasma and, therefore, is enclosed in a “plasma screen” biased near the spacecraft
potential to eliminate electron collection from the space plasma to the positively
biased surfaces.

The cathode is positioned outside the thruster and provides electrons at the same rate
as the ions to avoid charge imbalance with the spacecraft.
 • Plasma Generator
ION THRUSTER SYSTEM • Accelerator Grids
• Neutralizer Cathodes
 Hall Effect Thruster

This type of electrostatic thruster utilizes a cross-field discharge described by

the Hall effect to generate the plasma.

An electric field established perpendicular to an applied magnetic field

electrostatically accelerates ions to high exhaust velocities, while the
transverse magnetic field inhibits electron motion that would tend to short out
the electric field.

Hall thruster efficiency and specific impulse is somewhat less than that
achievable in ion thrusters, but the thrust at a given power is higher and the
device is much simpler and requires fewer power supplies to operate.
 HALL EFFECT THRUSTER

• Hall thruster efficiency and specific impulse less than ion thrusters, but
• The thrust at a given power is higher and the device is much simpler and requires fewer
power supplies to operate

1. Cross-field Discharge To Generate The Plasma

2. Electric Field Perpendicular To Magnetic Field
3. Electrostatically Accelerates İons To High Exhaust Velocities
A Hall thruster can also be thought of as consisting of basically three components:

• the cathode
• the discharge region
• magnetic field

Schematic illustration of a Hall thruster showing the radial

magnetic field and the accelerating electric field
A cylindrical insulating channel encloses the discharge region.

Magnetic coils induce a radial magnetic field between the center pole piece and the flux return path at the
outside edge.

The cathode of the discharge is an external hollow cathode, and the anode is a ring located at the base of
the cylindrical slot.

Gas is fed into the discharge channel through the anode and dispersed into the channel.

Electrons attempting to reach the anode encounter a transverse radial magnetic field, which reduces their
mobility in the axial direction and inhibits their flow to the anode.

The electrons tend to spiral around the thruster axis in the E x B direction and represent the Hall current
from which the device derives its name.

Ions generated by these electrons are accelerated by the electric field from the anode to the cathode
potential plasma produced at the front of the thruster.

Some fraction of the electrons emitted from the hollow cathode also leave the thruster with the ion beam
to neutralize the exiting charge.

The shape and material of the discharge region channel and the details of the magnetic field determine the
performance of the thruster.
Hall thrusters operate at the high specific impulses that are typical for
electric propulsion.

One particular advantage of Hall thrusters, as compared to a gridded

ion thruster, is that the generation and acceleration of the ions takes
place in a quasi-neutral plasma, so there is no Child-Langmuir charge
(space charge) saturated current limitation on the thrust density.

This allows much smaller thrusters compared to gridded ion thrusters.

 Beam/Plume Characteristics

The ion beam exiting the thruster is often called the thruster plume, and the
characteristics of this plume are important in how the exhaust particles interact
with the spacecraft.
Characteristics of a thruster plume
First, the beam has an envelope and a distribution of the ion currents in that
envelope.

Second, the energetic ions in the beam can charge exchange with neutral gas
coming from the thruster or the neutralizer, producing fast neutrals propagating in
the beam direction and slow ions. These slow ions then move in the local electric
fields associated with the exit of the acceleration region and the neutralizer plasma,
and can backflow into the thruster or move radially to potentially bombard any
spacecraft components in the vicinity.

Third, energetic ions are often generated at large angles from the thrust axis due
either to edge effects (fringe fields) in the acceleration optics of ion thrusters, large
gradients in the edge of the acceleration region in Hall thrusters, or scattering of the
beam ions with the background gas.

Finally, the thruster evolves impurities associated with the wear of the thruster
components. This can be due to the sputtering of the grids in ion thrusters, the
erosion of the ceramic channel in Hall thrusters, or the evolution of cathode
materials or sputtering of other electrodes in the engines. This material can deposit
on spacecraft surfaces, which can change surface properties such as emissivity,
transparency, etc
Child-Langmuir-Schottky law

Space charge is also a limiting factor for the grid size. The maximum
current I that can be extracted from an area A by a potential difference
U at a distance d is given by the Child-Langmuir-Schottky law as

A high current (and thrust) therefore requires a high potential difference at a

small distance, which can cause sparks. The limit here is usually 0.5 mm. With
total acceleration potentials between 1.5 and 2.5 kV, the diameter of the
discharge chamber is about 20 cm for a 20 micro N thruster and 40 cm for a
200 micro N thruster.
Limitations of Ion Thrusters

• only positive ions would create a strong positive potential in front of the
thruster, which would slow down the ions accelerated from the chamber.
If it is high enough, it can even stop the ion current and the thrust would
be zero (space charge limitation).
• A high current (and thrust) therefore requires a high potential difference at
a small distance, which can cause sparks. The limit here is usually 0.5
mm. With total acceleration potentials between 1.5 and 2.5 kV, the
diameter of the discharge chamber is about 20 cm for a 20 micro N
thruster and 40 cm for a 200 micro N thruster.
• Collisions between the fast ion (30,000 mls) and neutral propellant (1,000
mls) components can cause exchange of impulse between both collision
partners and hence slow ions and fast neutrals. This process is called
charge-exchange collision. The slow ions can then be attracted by the
accelerator grid (negative potential) gaining enough energy to cause
sputtering. This causes the most dominant lifetime limitation.
Electron-bombardment (Kaufman) Thruster

The electron-bombardment thruster was invented by Prof. Harold Kaufman in

the United States.

Electrons are emitted into the main discharge chamber and accelerated
towards an anode to potentials of typically 1,000 Volts.

The chamber is filled with the propellant gas, usually Xenon, ionized by the
energetic electrons.

To increase ionization efficiency, a magnetic field is applied to facilitate a gyro-

movement of the electrons and thus a higher chance of ionizing a neutral atom
along its way to the anode.

The ions are slowly pushed through an extractor grid by a small voltage drop
between the grid and the anode (typically a few tens of Volt).

Then, the ions are accelerated by another grid at negative or ground potential,
producing an ion beam with a half-angle divergence of about 10 degrees.
Since only positive ions leave the thruster (the electrons inside the main
chamber are repelled by the positive extractor grid), and the spacecraft is
not grounded in space, the spacecraft potential would continuously become
negative.

Therefore, electrons have to be injected externally into the ion beam to keep
the positive potential in front of the thruster, which would slow down the ions
accelerated from the chamber.

If it is high enough, it can even stop the ion current and the thrust would be zero
(space charge limitation).

The electrons help to create a quasi-neutral plasma that avoid these problems.
 Radiofrequency Thruster
An alternative to the electron-bombardment thruster is the radiofrequency (RF)
thruster.

This concept was invented by Prof. Loeb of Giessen University in Germany.

Here, the propellant gas is ionized by applying a MHz frequency excitation to free
electrons that ionize the neutral propellant.

The extractor grid (+ 1.5 kV) redirects the ions into the discharge chamber, the
accelerator grid (- 1.5 kV) and deaccelerator grid (around ground potential) are
similar to the electron bombardment thruster design.

The RF thruster offers design advantages (no hollow cathode in the main
discharge chamber, . .. ), the RF plasma process makes the RF thruster slightly
less efficient than the Kaufman engines.

Astrium in Germany is marketing the RIT-XX thruster series (RF Ion Thruster), the
RIT-1O generating 10 J.LN of thrust was flight-qualified on the EURECA mission in
1993.

The RIT thruster is also used on the ARTEMIS satellite

 Field Emission Thruster

A field emission thruster, also called Field Emission Electric Propulsion (PEEP)
thruster, uses an electric field to extract and accelerate atomic ions directly
from the surface of a metal exposed to vacuum by applying suitable voltages to
a closely spaced electrode configuration.

For propulsion applications, the most common source is a metallic liquid. The
thrust level ranges from micro- to milli-Newton at specific impulses of as high
as 12,000 seconds, requiring total acceleration voltages of up to lOkV and
above.

The power-to-thrust ratio is rather high at about 60-75W/mN.

When the free surface of the liquid metal is exposed to a high electric field it is
distorted into conical or series of conical protrusions (Taylor cone) in which the
radius of curvature at the apex becomes smaller as the field is increased.
Field Emission Thruster

At a threshold value of 109 V/m, atoms on the surface of the tip are ionized
and accelerated by the same field that created them, producing a thrust.

Due to this direct conversion of a liquid metal into an ion beam, the process
operates at high power efficiency.

Expelled ions are replenished by the hydrodynamical flow of the liquid metal.
A separate neutralizer is required to maintain charge neutrality.

two most common propellants used are Cesium and Indium; alternative propellants
are Rubidium and Gallium.

A propellant for such a type of thruster has to have a high atomic mass to achieve
sufficient thrust levels, good wetting capabilities to maintain propellant flow to the
ion emission site, a low melting point and ionization energy to reduce additional
power demands to liquify and ionize the propellant.
Two different designs have emerged and
are currently under development: one
based on Cesium or Rubidium as
In the slit configuration, multiple
propellant in a slit emitter configuration
Taylor cone emission sites are
developed by Centrospazio in Italy
automatically built up and are
therefore capable of producing high
and one based on an Indium propellant
thrusts up to mN.
using a needle or capillary type emitter
developed by ARC Seibersdorf research in
One needle or capillary type can
Austria
generate a maximum thrust of 100
J.LN and needs to be clustered for
higher thrust requirements
 colloid thruster

A colloid thruster electrostatically accelerates

very fine droplets of an electrically charged,
conducting fluid.

Droplets are formed by having the liquid flow

through a needle with an inner diameter of the
order of hundreds of microns.

The needle is on positive potential with respect to an accelerator electrode (in

some designs on negative potential) similar to field emission thrusters.

At the needle exit, a liquid cone developes due to the equilibrium of electrostatic forces
and surface tension (Taylor cone).

The same electrostatic forces break off droplets from the tip of the cone with a net charge
and accelerate it. Several needles are typically clustered together in an array to achieve
higher thrust levels.
Such type of thrusters were extensively studied in the 1960s through the mid 1970s in
the US (NASA, TRW, US Air Force), Europe (ESA) and Russia (MAl).

They were originally oriented as an alternative to ion engines at mN thrust levels

operating at a lower specific impulse.

The high mass-to-charge ratio of a charged droplet with respect to single ions was
known to increase the thrust density and efficiency.

On the other hand, very high acceleration voltages were required in the order of 12 up
to 100 kV, a requirement very difficult to handle on a spacecraft.

Moreover degradation problems due to radiation with the organic propellants used
stopped the development.
 Rocket Specific
Equation Impulse

Force
Transfer
Principles
and
Equations Thrust

Power
Dissipation

Efficiency
ROCKET EQUATION

The mass ejected to provide thrust to the spacecraft is the propellant, which is
carried onboard the vehicle and expended during thrusting.

From conservation of momentum, the ejected propellant mass times its velocity is
equal to the spacecraft mass times its change in velocity.

The “rocket equation” describing the relationship between the spacecraft velocity
and the mass of the system is derived as follows.

The force on a spacecraft, and thus the thrust on the vehicle, is equal to the mass
of the spacecraft, M, times its change in velocity, v:

…….Eq 1
The thrust on the spacecraft is equal and opposite to the time rate of change of
the momentum of the propellant, which is the exhaust velocity of the propellant
times the time rate of change of the propellant mass:

…….Eq 2

where mp is the propellant mass on the spacecraft and vex is the propellant
exhaust velocity in the spacecraft frame of reference
The total mass of the spacecraft at any time is the delivered mass, md , plus
the propellant mass:

…….Eq 3

The mass of the spacecraft changes due to consumption of the propellant, so the
time rate of change of the total mass is

…….Eq 4

Substituting Eq 4 in Eq 2, gives

…….Eq 5
T
 Equating equation 1 and Eq 5 gives

T= …….Eq 6

which can be written as

this equation is solved by integrating from the spacecraft initial velocity, vi , to the final velocity, v f ,
during which the mass changes from its initial value, md + mp , to its final delivered mass, md

The final mass of a spacecraft delivered after a given amount of propellant has been used to achieve
the specified Δv is
 The specific impulse, Isp, is equal to the propellant exhaust velocity, vex , divided
by the gravitational acceleration g.

The change in velocity of the spacecraft is then

The above Equation shows that for a given mission with a specified Δv and final
delivered mass, md, the initial spacecraft wet mass (md+mp) can be reduced by
increasing the Isp of the propulsion system, which has implications for the launch vehicle
size and cost. High delta-v missions are often enabled by electric propulsion because it
offers much higher exhaust velocities and Isp than do conventional chemical propulsion
systems.
 The above equation can be written in terms of the required propellant mass

The relationship between the amount of propellant required to perform a given

mission and the propellant exhaust velocity (or the propulsion system Isp) shows
that the propellant mass increases exponentially with the delta-v required.

Thrusters that provide a large propellant exhaust velocity compared to the

mission Δv will have a propellant mass that is only a small fraction of the
initial spacecraft wet mass.
The exhaust velocity of chemical rockets is limited by the energy contained in
the chemical bonds of the propellant used; typical values are up to 4 km/s.

Electric thrusters, however, separate the propellant from the energy source
(which is now a power supply) and thus are not subject to the same limitations.

Example: consider an asteroid rendezvous mission for which it is desired to

deliver 500 kg of payload with a mission Δv of 5 m/s. A Spacecraft
propelled by a chemical engine with a 3 km/s exhaust velocity,
corresponding to an Isp of 306 s, would require 2147 kg of propellant
to accomplish the mission.

In contrast, an ion thruster with a 30-km/s exhaust velocity, corresponding

to an Isp of 3060 s, would accomplish the same mission using only 91 kg
of propellant.
Thrust

Thrust is the force supplied by the engine to the spacecraft. Since the spacecraft
mass changes with time due to the propellant consumption, the thrust is given
by the time rate of change of the momentum, which can be written as

where mp, is the propellant mass flow rate in kg/s. The propellant mass flow
rate is

where Q is the propellant particle flow rate (in particles) and M is the particle
mass.
The kinetic thrust power of the beam, called the jet power, is defined as

the jet power can be written as

This expression shows that techniques that increase the thrust without
increasing the propellant flow rate will result in an increase in the jet power.
For ion and Hall thrusters, ions are accelerated to high exhaust velocity using
an electrical power source. The velocity of the ions greatly exceeds that of any
Un-ionized propellant that may escape from the thruster, so the thrust can be
described as

where mi is the ion mass flow rate and vi is the ion velocity.

By conservation of energy, the ion exhaust velocity is given by

where vb is the net voltage through which the ion was accelerated, q is the
charge, and M is the ion mass.
The mass flow rate of ions is related to the ion beam current, Ib , by

Substituting the thrust for a singly charged propellant (q = e ) is

The thrust is proportional to the beam current times the square root of the
acceleration voltage. In the case of Hall thrusters, there is a spread in beam
energies produced in the thruster, and tb represents the effective or average beam
voltage.
If the propellant is xenon,

the thrust is given by

where Ib is in amperes and vb is in volts.

The above Equation is the basic thrust equation that applies for a unidirectional,
singly ionized, monoenergetic beam of ions. The equation must be modified to
account for the divergence of the ion beam and the presence of multiply charged
ions commonly observed in electric thrusters.
The correction to the thrust equation for beam divergence is straightforward for a beam
that diverges uniformly upon exiting from the thruster. For a thruster with a constant
ion current density profile accelerated by uniform electric fields, the correction to the
force due to the effective thrust-vector angle is simply

where θ is the average half-angle divergence of the beam.

If the thrust half angle is 10 deg, then cos θ = 0.985, which represents a 1.5% loss in
thrust.
 Thruster Efficiency
The electrical efficiency of the thruster is
defined as the beam power, Pb , out of the
thruster divided by the total input power, PT
The cost of producing ions is described by an ion
production efficiency term, sometimes called the
discharge loss

The performance of a plasma generator plotting the discharge loss versus the
propellant utilization efficiency
 total thrust correction

The total thrust correction (γ) is the product of the divergence and multiply charged
species terms:

The total corrected thrust is then given by

The total thrust for xenon can be simply written as

For xenon, the atomic mass M = 13 1.29

For example,

If we assume an ion thruster with a 10-deg half-angle beam divergence and a 10%
doubles-to-singles ratio it will results in

γ = 0.958.

For a thruster producing 2 A of xenon ions at 1500 V, the thrust produced is

122.4 mN .
The thruster mass utilization efficiency, which accounts for the ionized versus
unionized propellant, is defined for singly charged ions as
Thruster Efficiency

The mass utilization efficiency, describes the fraction of the input propellant mass that
is converted into ions and accelerated in the electric thruster.

The electrical efficiency of the thruster is defined as the beam power, Pb , out of the
thruster divided by the total input power, PT :

where Po represents the other power input to the thruster required to create the
thrust beam.

Other power will include the electrical cost of producing the ions, cathode heater
or keeper power, grid currents in ion thrusters, etc.
The cost of producing ions is described by an ion production efficiency term,
sometimes called the discharge loss:

where ηd has units of watts per ampere (W/A) or equivalently electron-volts

per ion (eV/ion).

Contrary to most efficiency terms, it is desirable to have ηd as small as possible since this
represents a power loss.

For example, if an ion thruster requires a 20A, 25 V discharge to produce 2 A of ions in

the beam, the discharge loss is then 20*2512 = 250 eV/ion.
 The total efficiency of an electrically powered
thruster is defined as the jet
The total efficiency power divided by the total electrical power into
the thruster

the efficiency of any

electric propulsion
thruster

input power into the thruster

The total power is just the

beam power divided by
the electrical efficiency
thrust-to-power ratio
 In ion thrusters, the beam is nearly monoenergetic, the exhaust velocity can be found
from the net acceleration voltage applied to the thruster, and the beam current is
measured by the high voltage power supply. This allows the total efficiency to be
accurately calculated from the electrical and gas flow inputs to the thruster

for the thrust, for the exhaust velocity, and for the propellant flow rate, the total
efficiency can be written as

The input power into the thruster,

Substituting

Measurements of the input propellant flow rate and electrical parameters (currents and voltages), and
knowledge of the thrust correction factors from thruster plume measurements or code predictions, permit
the total efficiency of ion thrusters to be calculated with high accuracy using the above equation
Example: For an ion thruster with 10-deg half-angle divergence, (γ = 0.958) 10% double
ion current, 90% mass utilization efficiency, and 250 eV/ion to produce a 2-A beam at
1500 V, the electrical efficiency is

This shows that the thruster converts 70.8% of the supplied electrical energy
into useful kinetic energy imparted to the spacecraft
Thrusters with high exhaust velocities, and thus high Isp's, are desirable to
maximize a mission payload mass. In order to achieve high Isp, it is necessary to
operate at a high ion acceleration voltage and high mass utilization efficiency.

Reductions in ion mass also increase the Isp, but at the cost of thrust at the same
power level. This is seen by examining the thrust to-total input power ratio.

The total power is just the beam power divided by the electrical efficiency, so the
thrust-to-power ratio using Eq. is

The beam power is the beam current times the beam voltage

the thrust per unit input power is

This Equation shows that for a given input power and total thruster efficiency, increasing
the Isp reduces the thrust available from the electric engine.

This trade of thrust for Isp at a constant input power can only be improved if higher
efficiency ion thrusters are employed.
Electromagnetic
 Electromagnetic Thrusters

Electromagnetic thrusters accelerate ionized propellant through either

self-induced and/or applied magnetic fields.

The force is expressed by the Lorentz law

The high electric currents needed to generate thrusts require high power
levels (tens of kW up to MW) or pulsed-mode operation with heavy
capacitors
Low thrust and very high exhaust velocity of ion engines are a disadvantage to
many applications where efficiency of electric propulsion would be beneficial

These disadvantages are attributable t the fact that only the positive ions contribute
to thrust, and the ion current is limited to a low value by the space charge effect.

If the Ion flow could be increased beyond the space charge limit, then a much more
versatile engine could be developed.

It would have higher thrust and a somewhat lower exhaust velocity.

Principle of Plasma Thruster

An ionized gas passes through a channel across which are maintained orthogonal
electric and magnetic fields.

The current carried by electrons and ions, which develops along the electric field
vector, interacts with the magnetic field to generate a propulsive force along the
channel.

The force acts in the same direction for both electrons and ions, and so the whole
plasma is accelerated and the accelerating force is not limited by the density of the
plasma so the space charge limit is not breached

The gas therefore need not be completely ionized; even a few percent of ions is
sufficient, because they transfer their energy to the neutral gas molecules by collision.

Energy lost by the ions in this way is immediately restored by the electric and magnetic
fields
This process is not a simple affair, the transverse current generates its own
magnetic field, the gas is heated, and the ions are acted upon by electric and
magnetic fields which they themselves generate.

A combination of thermodynamics and electromagnetic theory is required to

predict the outcome.

This science is termed magnetoplasmadynamics

Many thruster designs based on magnetoplasmadynamics have been developed

Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) Thruster

In a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster or Lorentz force accelerator

(LFA), a high current discharge (kilo Ampere at < 100 Volts) is applied
between two coaxial electrodes.

This discharge ionizes the propellant flowing through the electrode

configuration.
A variety of non-oxidizing propellants (oxides lead to cathode degradation)
can be used such as hydrogen, hydrazine, Argon and even alkali metals
like Lithium.

The current generates a self-induced radial magnetic field that interacts

with the currents, resulting in a Lorentz force acceleration (thrust scales
with P).

The axial component generates thrust and the radial component increases
the pressure towards the center line.

Propellant flow and thermal gas expansion (temperatures higher than

2,500° C) also contribute to the thrust but are usually at least one order of
magnitude below magnetic acceleration.

This principle is called self-field MPD thruster.

An additional external magnetic field can be added (permanent magnets or

coils) around the anode to increase performance, which is known as
applied-field MPD thruster.
MPD thrusters can generate very high thrusts up to 200N, and can transmit
very high power levels (up to MWs) at specific impulses of up to 8,000
seconds.

The higher the power, the better the efficiency, which is typically around 35%
and can increase up to 75%.

These performance characteristics make MPD thrusters very attractive for

manned missions.

Obviously, these high power requirements can only be met in combination

with nuclear power plants.

Also ground testing is very difficult.

One of the few test centers with vacuum facilities as well as available power
for continuous operation of MPD thrusters is the Institute for Space Systems
at the University of Stuttgart in Germany.
Cathode erosion is one of the major lifetime-limitation factors.

However, being developed since the 1960's, MPD thrusters have

already demonstrated lifetimes in excess of 1,000 hours.
 Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT)

The pulsed plasma thruster is a very simple electric propulsion thruster. A

solid propellant bar, usually Teflon®, fills the gap between two electrodes
connected to a capacitor bank.

A spark plug triggers an electrical discharge across the surface of the

propellant.

Heat transfer from the discharge ablates part of the propellant and
ionizes it.

The ionized propellant is then accelerated by electromagnetic fields

similar to the MPD thruster.

A simple spring advances the bar axially for propellant resupply.

One shot produces a thrust of tens to hundreds of μN, the thruster
usually operates at a frequency of 1-3 Hz.

A PPT thruster has several advantages like zero warm-up time and
zero standby power, no propellant tanks and feedlines, and most
notably is very cheap due to the simple design.

The main disadvantage is the very small efficiency between 5-15%.

A PPT thruster was successfully flown on the Soviet Zond 2 spacecraft

towards Mars as early as 1964, several applications followed in the
United States.

Presently PPT thrusters are under evaluation for fine attitude and
position control of formation-flying satellites on account of their small
impulse bit capability.
Variable Isp Plasma Rocket (VASIMR)

A plasma rocket uses magnetic fields to confine a plasma and

electromagnetic energy to heat it.

In the VASIMR concept, hydrogen is ionized and injected into the main
chamber by a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) device.

The magnetic fields isolate the plasma from the chamber walls so that the
temperature can exceed material melting limits and therefore reach very high
specific impulses.

In the main chamber, electron and ion cyclotron heating is used by applying
resonant radiofrequency (RF) fields to heat the plasma, which is then
expelled through a magnetic nozzle.

Hydrogen propellant can be injected into the plasma exhaust for cooling
purposes.
The magnetic nozzle can control the thrust by varying the nozzle entrance
section.

On the other hand, the specific impulse can be varied by changing RF heating
power (3,000-30,000 s).

This enables to change thrust and specific impulse independently of each

other and enables performance to be tailored to a specific mission.
Work on the VASIMR concept was first conducted at the MIT Plasma
Fusion Center in the early 1980's and is presently going on at the Advanced
Space Propulsion Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

A small-scale VASIMR prototype is scheduled to be tested on board the

International Space Station to verify performance parameters.