Characterization of initial plasma discharges in the CPS-1 experiment

Author

Mayo, R.M. ; Glover, M.E. ; Bourham, M.A. ; Black, D.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nucl. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

fYear

1993

fDate

7-9 June 1993

Firstpage

236

Abstract

Summary form only given. A coaxial plasma source facility (CPS-1) has been developed at the North Carolina State University to investigate the suitability of magnetized coaxial plasma gun (MCG) technology for use in high-specific-impulse advanced nuclear electric propulsion. The primary research objective of the CPS-1 project is the experimental evaluation of the performance of an MCG source as a plasma thruster. Data describing the discharge characteristics have been obtained from initial experiments in this facility. These data include the plasma gun current and voltage traces for fast pulse operation from a low-inductance, 1.2 mF, 10 kV power delivery system.

Keywords

plasma guns; 1.2 mF; 10 kV; CPS-1 experiment; coaxial plasma source facility; discharge characteristics; fast pulse operation; gun current; high-specific-impulse advanced nuclear electric propulsion; magnetized coaxial plasma gun; plasma thruster; power delivery system; voltage traces; Coaxial components; Fault location; Magnetohydrodynamics; Plasma accelerators; Plasma confinement; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Plasma properties; Plasma sources; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Science, 1993. IEEE Conference Record - Abstracts., 1993 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Vancouver, BC, Canada

ISSN

0730-9244

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1360-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.1993.593654

Filename

593654