Arcjet Thruster Operated With Different Propellants

A Study of a Low-Power Microwave Arcjet Thruster Using Ammonia Propellant

A low-power microwave arjet thruster was studied using ammonia gas as propellant. The purpose of the project was to generate ammonia plasma using a 7.5 GHz magnetron and a cylindrical cavity thruster, which is resonant in the TM001 mode [1]. The desired pressure was atmospheric or above while generating a thrust of roughly 20mN and an Isp of about 500s operating at low power (<100 kW). Introduc...

An experimental investigation of alternative propellants for the helicon double layer thruster

Ion energy distribution functions are measured using a retarding field energy analyser located 7.5 cm downstream of a helicon double layer plasma source, respectively, operating with four molecular gases: nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O). For radiofrequency powers of a few hundred watts, and a magnetic field diverging from about 0.013 T (130 G) in the source t...

Diagnostics of an argon arcjet plume with a diode laser.

The diode-laser absorption technique was applied for simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements of an argon plume exhausted by an arcjet. The Ar I absorption line at 811.531 nm was taken as the center absorption line. The velocity and the temperature were derived from the Doppler shift in the absorption profiles and the full width at half-maximum of the plume absorption profile, respect...

Combustion Mechanisms of Solid Propellants

Low Acid Producing Solid Propellants

The potential environmental effects of the exhaust products of conventional rocket propellants have been assessed by various groups. Areas of concern have included stratospheric ozone, acid rain, toxicity, air quality and global warming. Some of the studies which have been performed on this subject have concluded that while the impacts of rocket use are extremely small, there are propellant dev...