Influence of Xenon and Krypton Flow Rates through the Acceleration Channel of Morozov’s Stationary Plasma Thruster on the Thrust Efficiency

Peculiarities of the propellant flow ionization in the Krypton Stationary Plasma Thrusters with the shifted out acceleration zone

“…The transition to this design provides an opportunity to reduce the loss of accelerated ions on the discharge chamber walls and prolong the service life of SPT's in operating modes with elevated propellant consumption densities in an IAL and in the accelerating channel. The available research (including the research performed by the authors of the present study) data suggest that competitive thrusters of this design may well be constructed [3,8]. However, this transition also affects the conditions of ionization of atoms in an IAL, since the flow of atoms and ions expands stronger in SPT-B than in thrusters of the traditional design, and the plasma concentration in an IAL decreases.…”

“…19287 Morozov Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPTs) are the most widely used electric thrusters in current space technology, and their scales of application is getting wider [1,2]. Active development and application of SPT's utilizing other propellants than the originally used xenon is already underway [2][3][4][5][6]. Krypton, which is significantly cheaper than xenon and is produced in significantly larger quantities, attracts much interest as an alternative option.…”

“…However, it is rather hard to design krypton SPT's with a high thrust efficiency and a large lifetime. The problem is that operating modes with elevated discharge powers and krypton consumption densities in the ionization and acceleration layer (IAL) need to be used in order to ensure efficient ionization of the krypton flow in the electrical SPT discharge [3,7]. This makes it difficult to construct a thruster with large lifetime.…”