Effects of Water-Vapor Propellant on Electrodeless Thruster Performance

Petro, Elaine; Sedwick, Raymond J.

doi:10.2514/1.b36389

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…16 Figure 2 shows the cross-sections for dominant reactions in the electron-neutral collisions considered in our previous work, together with the newly added attachment cross-sections (green lines), as compiled from the studies by Itikawa and Mason, 17 Kawaguchi et al, 18 Yousfi and Benabdessadok, 19 and Petro and Sedwick. 7 For a molecule like water, the energy dissipation mechanisms, such as rotational and vibrational excitation collisions, must be considered. This study set the rotational excitation at the rotational transition to J ¼ 0 !…”

Section: B Development Of the Collision Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water vapor or liquid plasma discharge applications extend from the norm of atmospheric and planetary sciences 1,2 to a wider range of fields, such as environmental and health problems, [3][4][5] plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition, 6 and space propulsion. [7][8][9] Recently, its use has been drastically expanded to microspacecraft applications to accommodate commercial purposes and science missions 10 and, accordingly, to miniature space propulsion to produce high delta-v or available changes in velocity, indispensable for such advanced missions. In this respect, a water-propelled gridded ion thruster is proposed for installation of the propulsion system into a 10-kg class microspacecraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of negative ions on discharge characteristics of water plasma source for a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster

et al. 2019

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This work analyzes the discharge characteristics of water plasma for a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster via three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with Monte Carlo collisions. It incorporates the negative ions (H À , O À , and OH À ) into the simulation code, aside from the three major positive ion species (H 2 O þ , OH þ , and H þ ), and investigates their effects on the discharge characteristics. On the one hand, the simulation results indicate that H 2 O þ is the dominant species and the negative ions have little effect on the positive ion density and transport. On the other hand, this study confirms the axial oscillation of the OH À negative ion density, in addition to azimuthal rotation, causing plasma instability with a periodic low-frequency anomalous diffusion. The azimuthal rotation is similar to the phenomena observed in other E Â B devices, where the difference in spatial distributions of magnetized electrons and unmagnetized ions causes the local potential hump and the resultant instability. Moreover, the axial oscillation, not observed in the previous study considering only positive ions, is due to the generation of OH À by the charge transfer collision reaction between H 2 O and H À , and this oscillation frequency is double that of the azimuthal rotation. Both the azimuthal rotation and the axial oscillation result in the periodic double peaks of the potential time evolution. These fluctuations have an influence on electron transport across the magnetic field.Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.

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Section: B Development Of the Collision Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of negative ions on discharge characteristics of water plasma source for a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster

et al. 2019

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“…In these studies, it is shown that the use of water gives a gain in efficiency of about 20% in comparison with argon. Modeling of processes in electrodeless helicon discharge on water vapor and comparison with discharge in argon is given in [12], where it is shown that the increase in the energy cost of an ion for water vapor is practically leveled at a plasma temperature of more than 5 eV. At the current time, it is required to determine experimentally the optimal regimes for helicon discharge on water vapor in a longitudinal magnetic field for use as the first stage of a powerful plasma thruster, which will allow further optimization of the ion cyclotron heating stage.…”

Section: Approaches and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Possibility of Using Water As a Propellant for Powerful Plasma Thrusters

Gutorov

2018

KEG

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“…4, where these are compiled from Itikawa and Nigel, 9) Kawaguchi et al, 10) Yousfi and Benabdessadok, 11) and Petro and Sedwick. 12) In Fig. 4, excitation represents the sum of 26 types of the electronic excitations, which has a threshold energy of 7.14 eV.…”

Section: Collisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Analysis of a Miniature Microwave-discharge Ion Thruster Using Water as the Propellant

Nakamura

Nakagawa

Koizumi

et al. 2018

Trans. Japan Soc. Aero. S Sci.

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We have conducted three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with Monte Carlo collisions method (PIC/MCC) to investigate the discharge characteristics of water for a microwave-discharge ion thruster, which can replace a high-pressure gas storage system. In the calculation model, three ion species (H 2 O + , OH + , and H +) are taken into account. The PIC/ MCC results indicate that the electron density, the potential, and the electron temperature are the highest near the ECR region, and in order to obtain a similar electron density, high absorbed power is required compared to the results using xenon as the propellant. For the ion composition ratio of the water discharges, H 2 O + and OH + dominate over H + and occupy more than 97%. However, about 10% of the ion current density is derived from H + because of its lightweight and the effect of hydrogen ions would not be negligible for ion beam extraction.

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Effects of Water-Vapor Propellant on Electrodeless Thruster Performance

Cited by 21 publications

References 45 publications

Effects of negative ions on discharge characteristics of water plasma source for a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster

Effects of negative ions on discharge characteristics of water plasma source for a miniature microwave discharge ion thruster

On the Possibility of Using Water As a Propellant for Powerful Plasma Thrusters

Numerical Analysis of a Miniature Microwave-discharge Ion Thruster Using Water as the Propellant

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