Abstract
Abstract : An absorption spectroscopy technique in the vacuum ultraviolet region was developed to measure the ion and neutral particle densities in the exhaust stream of a repetitively pulsed two-stage coaxial plasma propulsion engine by monitoring their various resonance absorption lines. The development of the plasma accelerator progressed to the point where argon was definitely ruled out as a suitable propellant. Xenon was found to be suitable and efforts were shifted towards extending the measuring techniques for use with xenon and other heavier propellants. In order to provide a better model for coaxial gun operation than hitherto available, some analytical effort was applied to the problem. The special casse of the stationary current sheet was brought to a successful conclusion both on the basis of energetics and the application of Faraday's law, starting from first principles. Extension of this analysis to cover the moving current sheet has been only partly successful to date in that a reasonable statement of the energetics could be made, but no consistent means has yet been found for applying Faraday's law.
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