Table of Contents
Can you make your own ion thruster?
To make the Ionic thruster you will require some high voltage sources like the Tesla coil, induction coil, automotive ignition coil with a driver, etc. here I am using a module that is capable of providing around 40kV of voltage. This rotor is then placed on a wire connected to high voltage power supply.
How fast can ion thruster go?
Spacecraft powered by these thrusters can reach speeds up to 90,000 meters per second (over 200,000 mph). In comparison, the Space Shuttles can reach speeds around 18,000 mph. The trade-off for the high top speeds of ion thrusters is low thrust (or low acceleration).
Who invented the Hall thruster?
the Russians
The Hall Thruster is a plasma-based propulsion system for space vehicles that was invented in the late 1950s. It has been developed primarily by the Russians. During the past 20 years, the Russians placed in orbit about 100 Hall Thrusters.
What is the Hall effect thruster (HET)?
When the US was beginning to investigate the gridded ion drive, the Soviet Union was investigating the Hall Effect thruster (HET). This is a very similar concept in many ways to the ion drive, in that it uses the electrostatic effect to accelerate propellant, but the mechanism is very different.
What is the efficiency of a high efficiency thruster?
Commercially available HETs generally have a total efficiency in the range of 50-60\%, however all thrusters that I’ve seen increase in efficiency as the power increases up to the design power limits, so higher-powered systems, such as ones that would be used on a nuclear electric spacecraft, would likely have higher efficiencies.
How much thrust does a Tal thruster produce?
Overall targets for the program are for a thruster that operates at 6 kW, providing 360 mN of thrust, 1700 s isp, with an anode mass flow rate of 20 mg/s and a cathode flow rate of 1 mg/s. The ultimate goal of the program is a 25 kW TAL system, containing 5 of these thrusters with a common cathode.
What is the difference between the HT 100 and HT 400 thrusters?
The HT 100 thruster unit can be offered with its HC 1A S-type hollow cathode, 300 W max PPU and dedicated fluidics based on flight-proven valves. The HT 400 Hall Effect Thruster (HET) has been designed to perform orbit and attitude control tasks on micro and mini satellites.