Air-breathing electric propulsion: Flight envelope identification and development of control for long-term orbital stability

Tisaev, M.; Ferrato, Eugenio; Giannetti, Vittorio; Paissoni, Christopher Andrea; Baresi, Nicola; Fabris, Andrea Lucca; Andreussi, Tommaso

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.11.011

Cited by 27 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Compression ratio is a concern for operating ABEP thrusters as a minimum gas density must be maintained inside the thruster for proper operation. This gas density limit constrains the range of possible inlet efficiencies and also sets an upper altitude limit on ABEP operation as described in [17]. Deterioration of ABEP thruster components is a concern due to the highly reactive propellant, and oxygen resistant materials must be chosen to resist thruster erosion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This work yielded three feasible spacecraft geometries for different operational altitudes. Tisaev et al presents more general analysis of ABEP performance demonstrating the impact of thrust to power, I sp , inlet efficiency, and other performance metrics on operational altitudes [17]. The authors also determine a maximum operating altitude by setting a minimum gas density for thruster operation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, this work relates spacecraft geometry scaling relations to operational performance independent of the overall size of the spacecraft thus making this analysis general to CubeSats as well as conventionally sized spacecraft. Spacecraft heating is ignored for this analysis as previous authors have shown that heating only becomes an issue at altitudes lower than those investigated in this paper [17,18]. Additionally, Earth oblateness perturbations are ignored in this study for simplicity and drag is assumed to be the only orbital perturbation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Air-breathing electric propulsion: mission characterization and design analysis

Crandall

Wirz

2022

J Electr Propuls

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Air breathing electric propulsion (atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion) (ABEP) has attracted significant interest as an enabling technology for long duration space missions in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) altitudes below about 300 km. The ABEP spacecraft and mission analysis model developed allows parametric characterization of key spacecraft geometry and thruster performance parameters such as spacecraft length-to-diameter, the ratio of solar array span to spacecraft diameter, thrust-to-power, effective exhaust velocity, and inlet efficiency. For the missions analyzed ABEP generally outperforms conventional electric propulsion (EP) below 250 km altitude. Using a 6U spacecraft architecture the model shows that below 220 km ABEP is the only viable propulsion option for desirable mission lifetimes. Parametric evaluations of key spacecraft and ABEP characteristics show that the most significant technological improvements to ABEP spacecraft performance and range of applicability for VLEO missions will come from advancements in inlet efficiency, low drag materials, solar array efficiency, and thrust-to-power.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Air-breathing electric propulsion: mission characterization and design analysis

Crandall

Wirz

2022

J Electr Propuls

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“…thruster. Previous mission analysis studies have indicated 180-200 km as a feasible VLEO altitude range for an ABEP system [1,2]. The generated thrust is used to compensate atmospheric drag and maintain the desired orbit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several recent mission analysis studies of the ABEP scenario conclude that high specific impulse (I sp ) is a key desired characteristic of the thruster, with a minimum I sp requirement of at least around 3000 s [1,2,5]. This is driven primarily by the tangential drag of the spacecraft and solar array surfaces, which is significant even if these surfaces are aligned with the VLEO air flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of applied magnetic field in an air-breathing microwave plasma cathode

Tisaev,

Karadag,

Fabris

2023

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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The air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) concept refers to a spacecraft in very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) ingesting upper atmospheric air as propellant for an electric thruster. This compensates atmospheric drag and allows the spacecraft to maintain its orbital altitude, removing the need for on-board propellant storage and allowing an extended mission duration which is not limited by propellant exhaustion. There is a need for development of a robust, high current density and long life cathode (or neutralizer) for air-breathing electrostatic thrusters as conventional thermionic hollow cathodes are susceptible to oxygen poisoning. An Air-breathing Microwave Plasma CAThode (AMPCAT) is proposed to overcome this issue through the use of a microwave plasma discharge, producing an extracted current in the order of 1 A with 0.1 mg/s of air. In this paper, the effect of varying magnetic-field strength and topology is investigated by using an electromagnet coil, which reveals a significantly different behaviour for air compared to xenon. The extracted current with xenon increases by 3.9 times from the zero-field value up to a peak around 150 mT magnetic-field strength at the antenna, whereas an applied field does not increase the extracted current with air at nominal conditions. A non-zero magnetic-field with air is however beneficial for current extraction at reduced neutral densities. A distinct increase in extracted current is identified at low bias voltages with air for a field strength of around 50 mT at the internal microwave antenna, consistent across varying field topologies. The effect of a lowered magnetic-field strength in the orifice region is investigated through the use of a secondary coil, resulting in an extracted current increase of 25 % for a relaxation from 6 mT to 1 mT, and demonstrating the beneficial impact of a locally reduced field strength on electron extraction.

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