Experimental study on discharge and plume characteristics of low power Kaufman ion thruster at variable ambient temperature
When a thruster faces in-orbit operation or ground experiments,it is often accompanied by large changes in ambient temperature.In order to study the effect of ambient temperature on the performance of the low-power Kaufman ion thruster,six sets of vacuum experiments are conducted in the temperature range of-130～20℃.The variation pattern of the key performance parameters such as beam current,specific impulse,dis-charge loss and beam divergence angle of the thruster under different ambient temperatures are obtained and analyzed.The study shows that the reduction of ambient temperature is beneficial to the overall performance of the ion thruster.The beam current and specific impulse of the thruster increase,the discharge loss decreases,and the influence of ambient temperature on the performance of the thruster is weakened with the decrease of temperature.The results of the study can provide a reference for the space application and ground thermal vacuum test research of the ion thruster.
ion thrusterplume characteristicsdischarge characteristicsvariable ambient tempera-turespace propulsion system
万方数据
维普
