Experiments with a coaxial hall current plasma accelerator

Abstract

Experiments with a Hall current accelerator using coaxial electrodes and externally applied diverging magnetic fields are reported. The accelerator is operated with mass flows of 0.0164 and 0.0338 g/sec, currents from 300 to 600 amp, and magnetic fields from 1000 to 6000 gauss. The measured values of thrust, specific impulse, power input, and efficiency show an approximately linear increase with increasing magnetic field. The experiments were performed mostly with argon; however, in a few tests, nitrogen and helium were used. The thrusts for the various gases are about the same for given mass flows. However, for argon, and to a lesser degree nitrogen, anomalously high specific impulse is obtained. Possible mechanisms for attaining these results are given. The influence of conditions in the vacuum chamber on operation of the device is, however, also investigated to determine if these desirable results are genuine or based on improper simulation of the space environment.