Compact torus plasma experiments for high specific impulse pulse plasma thruster

Summary

This abstract presents the development and engineering commissioning of the USTC-CT, a three-meter linear compact torus plasma device serving as a prototype gas pulse plasma thruster (PPT). By accelerating self-organized CT plasmoids with Lorentz force to 150 km/s, the device achieves a high specific impulse of 10^4 s and directional momentum of 0.1 N s, demonstrating strong potential for space electric propulsion applications.

Abstract Submitted for the GEC20 Meeting of The American Physical Society

Compact torus plasma experiments for high specific impulse pulse plasma thruster¹ TAO LAN, CHEN CHEN, SEN ZHANG, GE ZHUANG, University of Science and Technology of China, DEFENG KONG, Institute of Plasma Physics Chinese Academy of Science, CHIJIN XIAO, University of Saskatchewan, WANDONG LIU, University of Science and Technology of China — A new compact torus plasma system (USTC-CT) is developed as a gas pulse plasma thruster (PPT) prototype with very high specific impulse in University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The USTC-CT is a three-meter long linear device and equipped with two main high voltage power supplies. It is composed of the vacuum vessel, central solenoid, fast gas valves, timing system, pulse power supplies and compact torus (CT) exclusive diagnostics. The CT plasma is generated in the formation region with high voltage up to 10kV and then the self-organized CT plasmoid is axially accelerated to very high speed with strong Lorentz force in the acceleration region. Currently, the single pulse USTC-CT is in the engineering commissioning. The maximum particle number of single CT pulse is 10²⁰ for helium. The maximum electron density and axial speed are 1x10²²m⁻³ and 150 km/sec, respectively. Correspondingly, it provides the high specific impulse of 10⁴ sec and the directional momentum of 0.1 N sec. The remarkable results show the CT PPT has great potential for the space electric propulsion.

¹This work was supported by the National Magnetic Confinement Fusion Science Program of China (under Grant Nos. 2017YFE0301700 and 2017YFE0301701).

Tao Lan University of Science and Technology of China Date submitted: 14 Jun 2020 Electronic form version 1.4