Performance of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Drag-free Control

Izumi, Toshihiko; Koizumi, Hiroyuki; Yamagiwa, Yoshiki; Matsui, Makoto; Kuninaka, Hitoshi

doi:10.2514/6.2012-4022

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Under the conditions of flow rate 0.1 sccm, microwave power 0.5~2.0 W, and acceleration voltage 150~1850 V, the thrust can be continuously adjusted in the range of 1.38~139.18 µN [13]. The microwave ion thruster µ1, designed for the DECIGO pathfinder mission, suppresses the thrust noise in the 0.1~1 Hz band to less than 0.2 µN/Hz 1/2 by means of closed-loop feedback control of the input microwave power [14], which effectively suppresses the low-frequency disturbances but still requires more precise feedback control means.…”

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precision Feedback Control Design of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Space Gravitational Wave Detection

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The space gravitational wave detection mission has put forward multiple performance requirements for micro-newton thrusters, such as “fast response, high resolution, and low noise”. In order to solve the problem that the traditional open-loop propulsion system can hardly meet the high-precision performance, the microwave ion thruster with high accuracy and controllability of thrust estimation is adopted as the research object, and the precision feedback control method combining analog circuit and digital control technology is adopted to achieve a resolution of less than 0.1 μN, fast response of 20 ms, and 10−3~1 Hz frequency band noise less than 0.05 μN/Hz1/2 of the thrust performance. Experimental results show that, compared with open-loop regulation, the feedback control can effectively suppress various noises and disturbances caused by device temperature drift and complex operating characteristics of the thruster, and the anti-aliasing filter scheme adopted in this paper can suppress the folding of high-frequency data in the low- and medium-frequency bands during the digital control process, while it can effectively improve the system performance and reduce the impact of thrust noise. The feedback control strategy proposed in this paper verifies the possibility of a microwave ion thruster as an actuator for super “static and precise” space experiment satellites and provides a feasible solution for the application of a microwave ion thruster in deep space science experiment missions such as gravitational wave detection.

show abstract

Section: Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precision Feedback Control Design of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Space Gravitational Wave Detection

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…LISA, as a pioneer of space-borne GW observatory, has selected four types of thrusterscold gas thruster (CGT), radio frequency ion thruster (RIT), colloidal micro-Newton thruster (CMNT), and high efficiency multipole propulsion (HEMP) [13]. Lots of institutions are interested in these kinds of micro-propulsions and made a series of progress [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Especially, in 2016, LISA pathfinder, as a precursor satellite of LISA, carries the CMNT for providing a thrust dynamic range of 5-30 µN and a resolution of 0.1 µN [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, the residual differential acceleration of the two TMs in LISA pathfinder is effectively suppressed to be less than 5 fm s −2 at 10 −3 Hz meeting the requirement of LISA [25]. On the other hand, for the Taiji, TianQin, and DECIGO programs, they are tested with RIT, CGT, and electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster (ECRIT) in orbit or on the ground, respectively [20,26,27]. The results of these tests are listed in table 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A minimized electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster for China’s space-borne gravitational wave detection missions

Meng

Zhu

2023

Class. Quantum Grav.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Space-borne gravitational wave (GW) detection spacecraft works in the state of drag free for which a disturbance reduction system is utilized to offset the non-conservative force. The key actuator of drag-free control loop is a micro-thruster with the performance of a high precision thrust and wide-range operations. Ion thruster, such as electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster (ECRIT), is one of the options because its thrust can be controlled precisely by the method of beam current feedback. However, there is still a barrier for the conventional ECRIT to achieve the low thrust of 1 µN as required in space-borne GWs detection missions due to its radial structure. In this work, a minimized ECR ion thruster (mini-ECRIT) is designed by a new idea that it employs an axial ring-cusped field to exploit the low-pressure adaptability of resonance heating. The mini-ECRIT is tested and results in a dynamic thrust range of 1‒100 µN, a resolution of 0.1 µN, a thrust noise of 0.1 µN/Hz1/2, and a response time of about 10 ms. In addition, the specific impulse of this thruster can reach as high as 510 s at low thrust 5 µN, being higher than that of previous ion thrusters by a factor of about 5, which may significantly increase the lifetime of the system. This minimized ECR ion thruster may support China’s space-borne gravitational wave detection missions such as TianQin.

show abstract

“…Hiroyuki Koizumi et al in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) developed a micro power ECRIT, which was called μ1 [8,9]. The cylinder discharge chamber diameter of μ1 was 2 cm, and the maximum magnetic field intensity was 0.3 T while the minimum magnetic field intensity was 0.05 T. The performances of the thrust, specific impulse, and efficiency with 4 W input power for μ1 were 250 µN, 5500 s, and 32%, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of the Discharge Chamber Structure on the Performance of a 5 Cm-Diameter Ecr Ion Thruster

Ke¹,

Sun²,

Zhao³

et al. 2018

PIER Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-Design and experimental optimization of a 5 cm-diameter electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) Ion Thruster was carried out. The experimental results with the shorten discharge chamber demonstrated that its maximum efficiency, specific impulse, and thrust were 38%, 4300 s, 2.3 mN with the power of 130 W, respectively. The beam current was increased with the increment of the propellant flow rate and screen grid voltage. In addition, the performance of the thruster was associated with the distance of the antenna and screen grid. However, the optimum distance depended on the input microwave power which was about 20 W.

show abstract

Performance of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Drag-free Control

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

Precision Feedback Control Design of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Space Gravitational Wave Detection

Precision Feedback Control Design of Miniature Microwave Discharge Ion Thruster for Space Gravitational Wave Detection

A minimized electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster for China’s space-borne gravitational wave detection missions

The Effect of the Discharge Chamber Structure on the Performance of a 5 Cm-Diameter Ecr Ion Thruster

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About