Experimental Approach to Improve Ion Thruster Performance: Part 1 Effects of the propellant Delivery method

摘要

The effects of the propellant delivery method on ion thruster performance were investigated by using a 30-cm cusped ion thruster with a unique propellant delivery system. Form the experimental results, it was obtained that the discharge voltage was reduced without the degradation of beam current by supplying the propellant via both upstream and downstream feeds equivalently. This was due to the increase in electron number density And decrease in electron temperature of the discharge plasma. As a result of the discharge voltage reduction, Ion production cost and thrust-to-power ratio were Improved.