An ion thruster discharge cathode assembly (DCA) erosion theory is presented based on near-DCA NSTAR plasma potential measurements and experimental results for propellant flow rate effects on ion number density. The plasma potential structures are utilized in an ion trajectory algorithm to determine the location and angle at the DCA keeper of bombarding ions. These results suggest that the plas...

Mission proposals that land spacecraft on asteroids are becoming increasingly popular. However, in order to have a successful mission the spacecraft must reliably and softly land at the intended landing site with pinpoint precision. The problem under investigation is how to design a propellant optimal powered descent trajectory that can be quickly computed onboard the spacecraft, without intera...

In the combustion stability assessment of solid propellant rocket motors, several new destabilizing terms are introduced when rotational-flow effects are properly accounted for. Such effects must be included when the wave motion is parallel to the burning surface. A normal fluctuating velocity component then appears in a careful resolution of intrinsic fluid dynamics, including acoustico–vortic...

T study demonstrates the advantages of using a real coded genetic algorithm (GA) for aerospace engineering design applications. The GA developed for this study runs steady state, meaning that after every function evaluation the worst performer is determined and that worst performer is then thrown out and replaced by a new member that has been evaluated. The new member is produced by mating two ...

simultaneous thermal analysis (sta) method has been applied to study decomposition reactions of ap under a flowing nitrogen atmosphere and static air. results obtained indicate that a phase transformation occurs prior to the decomposition reaction. decomposition takes place exothermally in two stages, first stage of decomposition could be suppressed by the controlled heating programme. addition...