Study on Helicon Plasma Lissajous Acceleration for Electrodeless Electric Propulsion

Abstract

(Received June 27th, 2011) In order to realize a long lifetime of an electric propulsion system, we have been investigating various electrodeless electric propulsion concepts utilizing a helicon plasma source. In one of our concepts, helicon plasma is electromagnetically accelerated using a rotating electric field in the presence of a diverging static magnetic field. This acceleration concept is called the Lissajous acceleration. Plasma acceleration experiments have been conducted and plasma acceleration was evaluated using a Mach probe. Although the experiments showed some features of the electromagnetic acceleration, most increment of the plasma velocity is caused by the increment of the electron temperature. The thrust (4.95 μN) did not reach feasible values for real applications, and therefore, it is important to find a better operational condition with the aid of a theoretical thrust model. We have developed a theoretical thrust model which consists of a trajectory analysis and an electric field penetration model in the electrostatic approximation. The model shows that experimental parameters are off from an optimum operational condition which provides the maximum thrust.