POLYMER PRECURSORS FOR CREATING GAS DISCHARGE CHAMBER FOR ELECTRIC ROCKET ENGINE

Abstract

Electric rocket engines are widely used in space technology. Furthermore, at present, electric propulsion engines are also used as mid-flight engines for flights in interplanetary space. On modern spacecraft, the following types of electric propulsion are mostly used: SPT and grid ion thruster. When using these engines as sustainers, it is important is to increase the total power for obtaining the required thrust and specific impulse. With an increase in total power, the volume of the discharge chamber increases, which leads to technological difficulties in the manufacture of discharge chambers from ceramic materials. Thus, the task of finding alternative ceramic materials is relevant and necessary in the development of high-frequency ion thrusters. The article discusses the issues of creating a composite material based on woven quartz materials and organosilicon binder as a precursor filled with silicon nitride for the manufacture of gas discharge chamber (GDC) of high-frequency ion thruster (RFIT). By thermos-gravimetric analysis, a thermosetting binder, which meets the requirements of vibration resistance and electromagnetic permeability of GDC in the megahertz range, was selected. Based on the binder filled with silicon nitride powder, reinforced by quartz woven fabrics, manufactured GDC. The resulting product was tested as part of the laboratory electric propulsion device with a diameter of 100 mm and power of 200W.