Exhaust Plume Characterization of a Mini-PPT Using a Time-of-Flight/ Gridded Energy Analyzer

摘要

Despite first seeing operational use aboard spacecraft nearly forty years ago, electric propulsion (EP) systems have only gained widespread acceptance over the past decade. Long recognized for the higher specific impulse and lower system mass fraction they offer over chemical propulsion systems; EP systems stayed largely unproven during the early days of the space age because the spacecraft power systems they require had not yet been developed. The maturation of the EP field in recent years has been due to both the gradual development of adequate spacecraft power systems and the increased focus on high performance, low weight spacecraft components by the spacecraft engineering community. Today a variety of EP devices are employed across nearly the entire spectrum of spacecraft missions.