Abstract
In this work, thrust measurements of the high efficient and reliable vacuum arc thruster (HERVAT) are performed for different pulse energies. The thruster system includes a thruster head together with a newly developed pulse processing unit (PPU). The complete system (HERVAT + PPU) is able to perform more than 1 × 107 pulses. Moreover, the influence of an integrated active magnetic nozzle is investigated. As a result, the thrust to power ratio, the average thrust level and the impulse bit for each configuration are measured and calculated. For the thrust measurements, a highly sensitive horizontal thrust balance with an active force actuator is used and operated in the thrust compensation mode. The investigated system is able to achieve levels from 5 to 40 μN and thrust to power ratios from 1 to 2 μN/W. The experimental results are compared to the data available in literature.
Highlights
The aerospace industry is undergoing the biggest change since its beginning in 1950: new players in the field of launch services, aerospace technology and space hardware design are rushing into the old agency e.g., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or European Space Agency (ESA), shaped business, making space technology available to more users worldwide
It is evident that the use of a magnetic nozzle increases the pulse length to 550 μs and the arc voltage to 55 V, while the pulse length is only 250 μs with the arc burning at 35 V in the absence of a magnetic field
Our measurements show a thrust to power ratio (TTPR) in the range of 1.4 to 2.9 μN W−1 and a pulse processing unit (PPU) to arc energy ratios in the range of 0.58 to 0.92
Summary
The aerospace industry is undergoing the biggest change since its beginning in 1950: new players in the field of launch services, aerospace technology and space hardware design are rushing into the old agency e.g., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or European Space Agency (ESA), shaped business, making space technology available to more users worldwide. In contrast to pure military technology or science missions, the commercialisation of the space is the main focus of these new players like for example SpaceX or Amazon. One of the major projects of those companies are swarm based systems. These systems consist of hundreds or thousands of small satellites (e.g., CubeSats) which are linked together, increasing the performance and availability of the whole system. In order to start their missions, a successful de-tumbling procedure and precise targeting of each satellite is essential. For these tasks, a low power, less than 2 W, low volume, low cost, highly reliable and efficient thruster technology is required [1]. Pulsed vacuum arc thrusters can fulfill these requirements and are under investigation since many years [2,3,4,5]
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