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Arcjet rocket
About: Arcjet rocket is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1121 publications have been published within this topic receiving 9687 citations. The topic is also known as: Arcjet.
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TL;DR: A repetitively pulsed magnetoplasmadynamic arcjet thruster was integrated into a propulsion system, which was tested on-orbit using liquid hydrazine propellant as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A repetitively pulsed self- eld magnetoplasmadynamicarcjet thruster was integrated into a propulsion system, which was tested on-orbit using liquid hydrazine propellant. This space test was designated as Electric Propulsion Experiment (EPEX) onboardSpace FlyerUnit thatwas a Japaneseunmannedreusable space platformlaunchedby anH-II rocket inMarch1995,and retrieved by aU.S.SpaceShuttle in January1996.TheEPEX successfully veri ed the propulsive function of the pulsed magnetoplasmadynamic arcjet thruster system by repetitively ring over 40,000shots during a few days of allocated experiment period, and con rmed that the on-orbit thrust performance was in good agreement with that obtained in the ground test. The residual hydrazinewas successfully dumped into space according to NASA safety requirements. The post ight inspection exhibited no signature of abnormal arc discharge and no hydrazine concentration in the EPEX system.
17 citations
10 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, the first absorption-based temperature measurements inside the arc-heater were made in the NASA Ames IHF (60 MW) arcjet facility, where the temperature range is 5000-9000K and the pressure range is 1.5-6 bar.
Abstract: Diode laser absorption measurements of atomic nitrogen and oxygen are made in the arc- heater of the NASA Ames IHF (60 MW) arcjet facility. Temperature of the gas in the arc- heater is inferred from the measured mole fraction of electronically excited O and N atoms assuming thermal equilibrium. These results are the first absorption-based temperature measurements inside the arc-heater, where the temperature range is 5000-9000K and the pressure range is 1.5-6 bar. Rapid scanning of the laser wavelength across the absorption feature provides time-resolved measurements of the number density for specific electronic states of the atoms. The agreement of the temperature inferred from redundant measurements on atomic nitrogen and atomic oxygen suggest the equilibrium assumption is valid. The laser is scanned in wavelength across the absorption feature at a rate of 500Hz, and a 100 scan average provides a time-resolution sufficient to examine the variation of temperature with changes in the gas flow and/or electrical power input. These results illustrate the potential of the diode laser sensors for facility performance monitoring.
17 citations
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this article, the performance of water-cooled and radiation cooled arcjet thrusters operating on both 1:2 nitrogen/hydrogen mixtures at 1 to 2 kW and on pure hydrogen at 4 kW were compared.
Abstract: The performance of water-cooled and radiation cooled arcjet thrusters operating on both 1:2 nitrogen/hydrogen mixtures at 1 to 2 kW and on pure hydrogen at 1 to 4 kW are compared. To investigate the effects of test facility background pressure on performance, data were taken for both thruster operating on nitrogen/hydrogen mixtures at facility background pressures nominally at 0.20 Pa and 20 Pa. It is shown that increasing the background pressure decreased the thruster performance, and simple pressure area corrections alone could not account for observed degradation in performance.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a quasi-steady, supersonic plasma flow was produced by using a magneto-plasma-dynamic arcjet (MPDA) in a divergent magnetic nozzle.
Abstract: A quasi-steady, supersonic plasma flow was produced by using a magneto-plasma-dynamic arcjet (MPDA) in a divergent magnetic nozzle. The ion acoustic Mach number, Mi, evaluated by spectroscopy and Mach probe measurement, was unity in the uniform field near the MPDA and reached almost 3 in the divergent magnetic nozzle. In the case of a subsonic flow near the exit of the MPDA, a magnetic Laval nozzle was effective in converting it to a supersonic flow with Mi = 1 at the throat. We heated ions of the fast-flowing plasma by ICRF (ion-cyclotron-range of frequency) in a magnetic beach field. The increased thermal energy was converted to flow energy as it passed through the divergent magnetic nozzle in accordance with the constant magnetic moment. We were able to successfully control the plasma flow with a wide range of densities for basic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) studies and space thruster applications.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a spatially resolved time-of-right electrostatic probe method is described for measurements of radial velocity of the plasma axial velocity ui and the ion speed ratio ui/cm.
Abstract: Recent advances have been made in low-power (1 – 2 kW) arcjet performance with the aid of numerical, nonequilibrium plasma ow models. Consequently, validation of these models through experimentation has become increasingly important. We discuss diagnostic probe techniques for measuring the exit plane ow of a 1 kW class hydrazine thruster. A spatially resolved time-of- ight electrostatic probe method is described for measurements of radial pro les of the plasma axial velocity ui. These measurements are combined with previous quadruple probe measurements of Te and the ion speed ratio ui/cm to estimate the ion temperature Ti, resulting in Ti/Te ’ Tg/Te ; 0.4 at the thruster exit. The exit plane data for ui and Ti are compared with computational arcjet model predictions and previous experimental results, showing substantial agreement.
16 citations