ECR plasma thruster research - Preliminary theory and experimentsA preliminary theory of the operation of the electron-cyclotron-resonance (ECR) plasma thruster is described along with an outline of recent experiments. This work is presented to communicate the status of an ongoing research effort directed at developing a unified theory to quantitatively describe the operation of the ECR plasma thruster. The theory is presented as a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations and boundary conditions which describe the plasma density, velocity, and electron temperature. Diagnostic tools developed to measure plasma conditions in the existing research device are described.
Document ID
19890059414
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Sercel, Joel C. (California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory; California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States)
Fitzgerald, Dennis J. (California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; California State Polytechnic University Pomona, United States)