Inert gas ion thruster

Inert gas performance with three types of 12 cm diameter magnetoelectrostatic containment (MESC) ion thrusters was tested. The types tested included: (1) a hemispherical shaped discharge chamber with platinum cobalt magnets; (2) three different lengths of the hemispherical chambers with samarium cobalt magnets; and (3) three lengths of the conical shaped chambers with aluminum nickel cobalt magnets. The best argon performance was produced by a 8.0 cm long conical chamber with alnico magnets. The best xenon high mass utilization performance was obtained with the same 8.0 cm long conical thruster. The hemispherical thruster obtained 75 to 87% mass utilization at 185 to 205 eV/ion of singly charged ion equivalent beam.