Plume diagnostics of BUSTLab microwave electrothermal thruster using Langmuir and Faraday probes

M Serhan YILDIZ; Murat CELIK

doi:10.1088/2058-6272/aaf280

Plasma Science and Technology > 2019 > 21(4): 45505-045505. > DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aaf280

M Serhan YILDIZ, Murat CELIK. Plume diagnostics of BUSTLab microwave electrothermal thruster using Langmuir and Faraday probes[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2019, 21(4): 45505-045505. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/aaf280

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Plume diagnostics of BUSTLab microwave electrothermal thruster using Langmuir and Faraday probes

M Serhan YILDIZ¹,
Murat CELIK²

¹ Turkish Air Force Academy, Istanbul 34149, Turkey
² Bogazici University, Istanbul 34342, Turkey

Funds: This work was supported in part by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey under project TUBITAK-214M572.

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Received Date: August 31, 2018

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Abstract

Abstract

This study presents the Langmuir and Faraday probe measurements conducted to determine the plume characteristics of the BUSTLab microwave electrothermal thruster (MET). The thruster, designed to operate at 2.45 GHz frequency, is run with helium, argon and nitrogen gases as the propellant. For the measurements, the propellant volume flow rate and the delivered microwave power levels are varied. Experiments with nitrogen gas revealed certain operation regimes where a very luminous plume is observed. With the use of in-house-built Langmuir probes and a Faraday probe with guard ring, thruster plume electron temperature, plasma density and ion current density values are measured, and the results are presented. The measurements show that MET thruster plume effects on spacecraft will likely be similar to those of the arcjet plume. It is observed that the measured plume ion flux levels are very low for the high volume flow rates used for the operation of this thruster.
- microwave electrothermal thruster,
- plasma diagnostics,
- plume plasma,
- faraday probe

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References (37)

References

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Plume diagnostics of BUSTLab microwave electrothermal thruster using Langmuir and Faraday probes