Title :
Discharge hollow cathode design for a 4-Gridded ion Engine
Author :
Coletti, M. ; Marques, R. Intini ; Gabriel, S.B.
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Abstract :
At the end of 2008 a European Union sponsored project called HiPER (High Power Electric propulsion: a Roadmap for the future) started in Europe with the aim of defining the roadmap for the future of electric propulsion. Within this project several different propulsive systems are under study and among those the Dual Stage 4 Grid Ion Engine (DS4G). In this paper a preliminary definition of the thruster performances based on the mission selected for HiPER will be presented and the design of discharge cathodes to provide primary electrons to the DS4G discharge chamber will be presented.
Keywords :
electric propulsion; ion engines; 4-gridded ion engine; European Union; discharge hollow cathode design; dual stage 4 grid ion engine; high power electric propulsion; propulsive systems; thruster performance; Acceleration; Cathodes; Current density; Electrons; Engines; Europe; Mars; Propulsion; Testing; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Aerospace Conference, 2010 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Big Sky, MT
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3887-7
Electronic_ISBN :
1095-323X
DOI :
10.1109/AERO.2010.5446771
