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Register a new userRF Helicon-based Inductive Plasma Thruster (IPT) Design for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion system (ABEP)
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Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft. To extend such missions lifetime, an efficient propulsion system is required. One solution is Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP). It collects atmospheric particles to be used as propellant for an electric thruster. The system would minimize the requirement of limited propellant availability and can also be applied to any planet with atmosphere, enabling new mission at low altitude ranges for longer times. Challenging is also the presence of reactive chemical species, such as atomic oxygen in Earth orbit. Such species cause erosion of (not only) propulsion system components, i.e. acceleration grids, electrodes, and discharge channels of conventional EP systems. IRS is developing within the DISCOVERER project, an intake and a thruster for an ABEP system. The paper describes the design and implementation of the RF helicon-based inductive plasma thruster (IPT). This paper deals in particular with the design and implementation of a novel antenna called the birdcage antenna, a device well known in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and also lately employed for helicon-wave based plasma sources in fusion research. The IPT is based on RF electrodeless operation aided by an externally applied static magnetic field. The IPT is composed by an antenna, a discharge channel, a movable injector, and a solenoid. By changing the operational parameters along with the novel antenna design, the aim is to minimize losses in the RF circuit, and accelerate a quasi-neutral plasma plume. This is also to be aided by the formation of helicon waves within the plasma that are to improve the overall efficiency and achieve higher exhaust velocities. Finally, the designed IPT with a particular focus on the birdcage antenna design procedure is presented
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Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft. To extend the lifetime of such missions, an efficient propulsion system is required. One solution is Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) that collects atmospheric particles to be used as propellant for an electric thruster. The system would minimize the requirement of limited propellant availability and can also be applied to any planetary body with atmosphere, enabling new missions at low altitude ranges for longer times. IRS is developing, within the H2020 DISCOVERER project, an intake and a thruster for an ABEP system. The article describes the design and simulation of the intake, optimized to feed the radio frequency (RF) Helicon-based plasma thruster developed at IRS. The article deals in particular with the design of intakes based on diffuse and specular reflecting materials, which are analysed by the PICLas DSMC-PIC tool. Orbital altitudes $h=150-250$ km and the respective species based on the NRLMSISE-00 model (O, $N_2$, $O_2$, He, Ar, H, N) are investigated for several concepts based on fully diffuse and specular scattering, including hybrid designs. The major focus has been on the intake efficiency defined as $eta_c=dot{N}_{out}/dot{N}_{in}$, with $dot{N}_{in}$ the incoming particle flux, and $dot{N}_{out}$ the one collected by the intake. Finally, two concepts are selected and presented providing the best expected performance for the operation with the selected thruster. The first one is based on fully diffuse accommodation yielding to $eta_c<0.46$ and the second one based un fully specular accommodation yielding to $eta_c<0.94$. Finally, also the influence of misalignment with the flow is analysed, highlighting a strong dependence of $eta_c$ in the diffuse-based intake while, ...
Large volume helicon plasma sources are of particular interest for large scale semiconductor processing, high power plasma propulsion and recently plasma-material interaction under fusion conditions. This work is devoted to studying the coupling of four typical RF antennas to helicon plasma with infinite length and diameter of $0.5$~m, and exploring its frequency dependence in the range of $13.56-70$~MHz for coupling optimization. It is found that loop antenna is more efficient than half helix, Boswell and Nagoya III antennas for power absorption; radially parabolic density profile overwhelms Gaussian density profile in terms of antenna coupling for low-density plasma, but the superiority reverses for high-density plasma. Increasing the driving frequency results in power absorption more near plasma edge, but the overall power absorption increases with frequency. Perpendicular stream plots of wave magnetic field, wave electric field and perturbed current are also presented. This work can serve as an important reference for the experimental design of large volume helicon plasma source with high RF power.
Radio Frequency (RF) driven helicon plasma sources are commonly used for their ability to produce high-density argon plasmas (n > 10^19/m^3) at relatively moderate powers (typical RF power < 2 kW). Typical electron temperatures are < 10 eV and typical ion temperatures are < 0.6 eV. A newly designed helicon antenna assembly (with concentric, double-layered, fully liquid-cooled RF-transparent windows) operates in steady-state at RF powers up to 10 kW. We report on the dependence of argon plasma density, electron temperature and ion temperature on RF power. At 10 kW, ion temperatures > 2 eV in argon plasmas are measured with laser induced fluorescence, which is consistent with a simple volume averaged 0-D power balance model. 1-D Monte Carlo simulations of the neutral density profile for these plasma conditions show strong neutral depletion near the core and predict neutral temperatures well above room temperatures. The plasmas created in this high-power helicon source (when light ions are employed) are ideally suited for fusion divertor plasma-material interaction studies and negative ion production for neutral beams.
The definition of magnetic shuttle is introduced to describe the magnetic space enclosed by two tandem magnetic mirrors with the same field direction and high mirror ratio. Helicon plasma immersed in such a magnetic shuttle which can provide the confinement of charged particles is modeled using an electromagnetic solver. The perpendicular structure of wave field along this shuttle is given in terms of stream vector plots, showing significant change from midplane to ending throats, and the vector field rotates and forms a circular layer that separating plasma column radially into core and edge regions near the throats. The influences of driving frequency, plasma density and field strength on the wave field and power absorption are computed in detail. It is found that the wave magnitude and power absorption decrease for increased driving frequency and reduced field strength, and maximize around a certain level of plasma density. The axial standing-wave feature always exists, due to the interference between forward and reflected waves from ending magnetic mirrors, while the radial wave field structure largely stays the same. Distributions of wave energy density and power absorption density all show shrinking feature from midplane to ending throats, which is consistent with the nature of helicon mode that propagating along field lines. Theoretical analysis based on a simple magnetic shuttle and the governing equation of helicon waves shows consistency with computed results and previous studies.
A two-fluid flowing plasma model is applied to describe the plasma rotation and resulted instability evolution in magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster (MEVAT). Typical experimental parameters are employed, including plasma density, equilibrium magnetic field, ion and electron temperatures, cathode materials, axial streaming velocity, and azimuthal rotation frequency. It is found that the growth rate of plasma instability increases with growing rotation frequency and field strength, and with descending electron temperature and atomic weight, for which the underlying physics are explained. The radial structure of density fluctuation is compared with that of equilibrium density gradient, and the radial locations of their peak magnitudes are very close, showing an evidence of resistive drift mode driven by density gradient. Temporal evolution of perturbed mass flow in the cross section of plasma column is also presented, which behaves in form of clockwise rotation (direction of electron diamagnetic drift) at edge and anti-clockwise rotation (direction of ion diamagnetic drift) in the core, separated by a mode transition layer from $n=0$ to $n=1$. This work, to our best knowledge, is the first treatment of plasma instability caused by rotation and axial flow in MEVAT, and is also of great practical interest for other electric thrusters where rotating plasma is concerned for long-time stable operation and propulsion efficiency optimization.
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