Search Results (2)

This paper presents the development, analysis, and performance evaluation of a novel transversal-feed Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Thruster (ECRPT). The ECRPT operates based on the transversal-feed principle and incorporates optimized structural design. Through extensive simulation of the S-parameters of the antenna, optimal antenna sizes are determined for both coaxial and transversal-feed configurations. Additionally, the electric field intensity of the antenna is simulated for both feed structures, revealing higher electric field intensity in the transversal structure, thereby promoting discharge. We employ the drift-diffusion model to calculate the number density of electrons in the discharge chamber and ascertain that the number density can reach an order of magnitude of 10¹⁸ m⁻³. Experimental discharge tests are conducted under various microwave power conditions, demonstrating that the thruster can initiate and cease operation with an incident power as low as 5 W, significantly lower than that of traditional coaxial feed structures. At a power level of 20 W, the ion current density can attain 3 A/m². Moreover, the transversal-feed thruster exhibits exceptional performance when the power exceeds 10 W, and the propellant flow rate ranges from 0.5 SCCM to 5 SCCM. The superior performance characteristics of the proposed thruster configuration make it a promising candidate for applications demanding efficient and low-power plasma propulsion systems. Full article

The space gravitational wave detection mission has put forward multiple performance requirements for micro-newton thrusters, such as “fast response, high resolution, and low noise”. In order to solve the problem that the traditional open-loop propulsion system can hardly meet the high-precision performance, the microwave ion thruster with high accuracy and controllability of thrust estimation is adopted as the research object, and the precision feedback control method combining analog circuit and digital control technology is adopted to achieve a resolution of less than 0.1 μN, fast response of 20 ms, and 10⁻³~1 Hz frequency band noise less than 0.05 μN/Hz^1/2 of the thrust performance. Experimental results show that, compared with open-loop regulation, the feedback control can effectively suppress various noises and disturbances caused by device temperature drift and complex operating characteristics of the thruster, and the anti-aliasing filter scheme adopted in this paper can suppress the folding of high-frequency data in the low- and medium-frequency bands during the digital control process, while it can effectively improve the system performance and reduce the impact of thrust noise. The feedback control strategy proposed in this paper verifies the possibility of a microwave ion thruster as an actuator for super “static and precise” space experiment satellites and provides a feasible solution for the application of a microwave ion thruster in deep space science experiment missions such as gravitational wave detection. Full article