Life Evaluation of a Lanthanum Hexaboride Hollow Cathode for High-Power Hall Thruster

Becatti, Giulia; Goebel, Dan M.; Polk, James E.; Guerrero, Pablo

doi:10.2514/1.b36659

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In reality, the expected results from experimental evidence present a minimum in the discharge voltage, followed by an increase due to the onset of plume instabilities [29], [30], [31], [11, p. 312]. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated how the plasma inside the hollow cathode is not affected by the instabilities developing in the plume [32], which means that the results hereby presented remain valid.…”

Section: A General Trendsmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…Moreover, for each cathode, there is enough experimental data (or more advanced simulations such as the decennially developed OrCa2D) available in the literature to perform detailed comparisons. Nevertheless, [29] it must be noted that the plasma model is very sensitive to the thermal model, because of the quadratic dependence of the emitted current on the insert temperature. In regards to thermal simulation, it has not always been possible to assess the materials of which the cathode is made to perform an accurate model.…”

Section: Comparison To Literature Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1) 350 A: NASA's XR-100 hollow cathode is a very high current cathode, capable of delivering up to 350 A, developed for the 200 kW three channel nested Hall Thruster X3 [29], [30], [31]. Zero-dimensional models are seldom used to model very high current cathodes such as this, mostly because of the large control volume which is no longer adequately described by 0-D approximations.…”

Section: Comparison To Literature Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Coupled 0-D Plasma Thermal Model for Hollow Cathodes

Becatti

Saravia

Paganucci

2023

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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Section: A General Trendsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Comparison To Literature Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison To Literature Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Coupled 0-D Plasma Thermal Model for Hollow Cathodes

Becatti

Saravia

Paganucci

2023

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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“…The validation and demonstration of the hollow cathode technology for such long lifetime require the understanding of the main limiting factors impacting the lifetime of the cathodes. Previous works indicated the emitter evaporation [5,6] and the keeper erosion [7] as the main life-limiting mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Triple Langmuir Probes Measurements of LaB6 Hollow Cathodes Plume

et al. 2019

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Lanthanum hexaboride hollow cathodes represent a viable option for high power Hall effect thruster applications, under development for the next generation of manned and robotic interplanetary missions. In this scenario, SITAEL and the University of Pisa are actively developing high current hollow cathodes capable of providing discharge current in the range 10-100 A to be coupled with high power Hall effect thrusters. The cathode design is based on an in-house theoretical model of the internal sections of the cathode, recently integrated with a simplified model of the cathode plume. Despite the application of hollow cathodes on flight and laboratory model Hall effect thrusters, many questions remain unsolved. In particular, issues related to onset of instabilities, due to plume mode or ion acoustic turbulence, are still unclear, while it is known that they can affect the overall performance of the cathode and thruster unit. This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of the cathode plume by means of measurements of the main plasma parameters, at different operating conditions and for different cathode geometry. Two cathodes were investigated, namely HC20 and HC60, designed to be coupled with SITAEL's HT5k and HT20k (5 kW-and 20 kW-class) Hall effect thrusters. The cathodes were mounted in stand-alone configuration with an auxiliary cylindrical anode. The experimental campaign was performed using triple Langmuir probes as plasma diagnostic system. The probes were mounted on scanning mechanisms to measure the plume parameters at various radial and axial distances from the keeper exit. General trends of electron temperature, plasma potential and plasma density are reported in terms of discharge current, mass flow rate and cathode orifice geometry. The results highlight that the cathode plate orifice selection affects the plume mode onset, giving the possibility to extend the stable mode of cathode operation in the current range required by the thruster.

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“…Introduction I ON engines have been used in a number of space missions, including Deep Space 1 [1], Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) [2], Hayabusa [3] and Hayabusa 2 [4], Boeing's All Electric Satellite [5], and Hodoyoshi-4 [6]. These engines contain electron sources, such as hollow cathodes [7][8][9], radiofrequency discharge neutralizers [10], and microwave discharge neutralizers [11], for the neutralization of the extracted ion beam from the ion source. Unfortunately, the electron sources consume propellant gas, and this leads inevitably to degradation of total specific impulse.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%