Electrospray Thrusters for Small Spacecraft Control: Pulsed and Steady State Operation

Courtney, Daniel G.; Alvarez, Nereo; Demmons, Nathaniel

doi:10.2514/6.2018-4654

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The emitted particles are usually droplets, and in some examples, ions. The main applications of electrospray are in mass spectrometry [1][2][3] , and other uses have been investigated and developed, including electrospinning fabrication 4,5 , ion beam etching [6][7][8] , ion beam deposition 9,10 and space propulsion for micro/nano-satellites [11][12][13][14] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plume particle energy analysis of an ionic liquid electrospray ion source with high emission density

Ryan

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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A retarding potential analyser was used to characterise the energy distribution of the plume particles from an electrospray source. The electrospray device uses an ionic liquid, operates at bipolar and relatively high voltages from ±1800 to ±3500 V, and demonstrated ionic emissions with relatively high emission density of more than ±30 µA per emission tip. Electrostatic simulations were used to study the effects of electric field distortion near the grids in the retarding potential analyser, and a correction factor of 93% was used to regulate the deceleration voltage in the energy analysis, from which the voltage losses between the applied voltage of the electrospray source and the actual acceleration voltage of the charged particles were calculated, demonstrating non-kinetic efficiency from 85.8% at -2100 V to 79.6% at 2600 V. The plume particle energy analysis shows evidence of fragmentation of heavier particles, mostly from dimer ions to monomer ions, and detailed energy analysis was used to estimate the position where the fragmentation occurs. The results suggest that about 45% to 55% of the particle fragmentation occurred in the field-free region, 20% to 30% occurred in the acceleration region with an intense electric field, with the rest of the plume containing unfragmented ions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plume particle energy analysis of an ionic liquid electrospray ion source with high emission density

Ryan

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Courtney et al [17] prepared a porous electrospray thruster of a linear array. When emitting 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumtetrafluoroborate (EMIBF 4 ), the thruster can output the thrust of 7-25 μN at input power from 0.2 to 0.7 W. Busek's [18,19] thruster of BET300-P can generate more than 150 μN of thrust, and the specific impulse was 840-1050 s. Chen et al [20,21] designed and developed a passive liquid-supply electrospray thruster that can achieve thrust of 67.1 μN, and specific impulse was 3117 s in the negative bias.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of a porous electrospray thruster with different number of emitter-strips

Jia¹,

Chen²,

Liu³

et al. 2021

Plasma Sci. Technol.

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The electrospray thruster is becoming popular in space propulsion due to its low power and high specific impulse. Before this work, an electrospray thruster based on a porous emitter was developed. In order to achieve larger and more stable thrust, the thruster was redesigned, and the influence of the space between strips on thrust was studied. Four types of emitter were tested, and they had 1, 3, 4 and 14 emitter-strips on the emission surface of the same size respectively. According to the experimental results, the maximum extraction voltage and emission current of the four thrusters are different under stable operational conditions. The measured stable emission currents and extraction voltages were −500 μA/−5000 V, −1570 μA/−3800 V, −1200 μA/ −3800 V, and −650 μA/−4500 V, respectively. Increasing the number of strips may not result in the emission current increasing, but changing the stable operational range of the emission current per strip and the extraction voltage. The maximum stable operational extraction voltages of 3 and 4 emitter-strips are lower than those of 1 and 14 emitter-strips, but the emission currents are higher than those of 1 and 14 emitter-strips. Time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to analyze the mass distribution and obtain the performance of the thruster in the case of thrusters with 1 and 3 emitter-strips. Both of their plumes were composed of very small ion cluster (the pure-ion regime), and their thrusts were 80.1 μN, 219.2 μN with specific impulses of 5774 s, 5047 s, respectively.

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“…To meet the strict requirements, micropropulsion modules with various technologies were proposed. For example, some modules are packed with electric thrusters without complex propellant management system, such as a passive fed electrospray thruster and a microcathode arc thruster (μCAT) [9,10], whereas others with traditional thrusters are self-pressurized, without high-pressure gas tanks. The deep space missions and the propulsion systems of the platform discussed in this article are primarily based on products developed by Beijing Institute of Control Engineering (BICE), which has specialization in the control and propulsion systems of spacecraft and has the accomplishment of China's 90% of satellites and spacecraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The View of Micropropulsion Technology for China’s Advanced Small Platforms in Deep Space

Wei¹,

Yan²,

Liu³

et al. 2022

Space Sci Technol

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In this paper, micropropulsion systems are analyzed in conjunction with the various mission requirements of China’s deep space exploration. As a great challenge facing the world, deep space exploration can be enabled only in a few countries with a success rate of around 50%. With the advancement of spacecraft and scientific instruments, it is now feasible to build small and low-cost spacecraft for a variety of deep space missions. As spacecraft become smaller, there is a need for proper micropropulsion systems. Examples of propulsion system selections for deep space exploration are discussed with a focus on products developed by Beijing Institute of Control Engineering (BICE). The requirements for propulsion systems are different in lunar/interplanetary exploration and gravitational wave detection. Chemical propulsion is selected for fast orbit transfer and electric propulsion for increasing scientific payloads. Cold gas propulsion and microelectric propulsion are good choices for space-based gravitational wave detection due to the capability of variable thrust output at the micro-Newton level. The paper also introduces the sub-1-U micropropulsion modules developed by BICE with satisfactory performance in flight tests, which are promising propulsion systems for small deep space platforms. A small probe with an electric sail propulsion system has been proposed for the future solar system boundary exploration of China. The electric sail serves as not only a propellant-free thruster but also a detector probing the properties of the space medium.

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Electrospray Thrusters for Small Spacecraft Control: Pulsed and Steady State Operation

Cited by 16 publications

References 19 publications

Plume particle energy analysis of an ionic liquid electrospray ion source with high emission density

Plume particle energy analysis of an ionic liquid electrospray ion source with high emission density

Experimental study of a porous electrospray thruster with different number of emitter-strips

The View of Micropropulsion Technology for China’s Advanced Small Platforms in Deep Space

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