Electric Propulsion - Lecture Notes |

AE 6450
Space Flight Mechanics
Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
33 pag.

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 AE6450 Fall 2004
Lecture #13
Electric Propulsion

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 Perspectives on Achievable Performance
Hill & Peterson

Minimum energy expenditure in taking 1 kg of mass

to Earth Orbit = 9kWh
Earth Escape= 18kWh

Chemical energy depends of mass of propellant used – upper limit on

energy per unit mass.
H2-O2: 3.7kWh per kg.
Upper limit on chemical propulsion specific impulse ~ 500 s

Nuclear thermal: energy transfer must come across some solid walls:
maximum propellant temperature is limited by maximum wall
temperature. Max specific impulse may be around 1000s.

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Electrical: No upper limit identified on energy transfer per unit mass –
no upper limit on specific impulse.

Energy source can be solar, or Energy from nuclear fuel, which has
extremely high energy density (orders of magnitude >> chemical)

www.islandone.org/APC/lectric/00.html

Courtesy: Robert.H. Frisbee, JPL

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 Several classes of electric propulsion

1. Electrothermal – resistojets and arcjets (N2H4)

2. Electromagnetic – steady (MPD) and unsteady (pulsed plasma thrusters –

PPP) (stream of conducting fluid is accelerated by electromagnetic and
pressure forces. Most easily used in pulsed operation for short burst of
thrust.)

3. Electrostatic (ion propulsion) Propellant consists of discrete particles

accelerated by electrostatic forces. Particles (usually atoms) are charged
by electron bombardment.

Here we will concentrate on ion propulsion

(Fig. 9-17 Humble Ion Propulsion)

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 www.rocket.com/epandse.html

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 www.rocket.com/epandse.html

“Functional Model Thruster (FMT) provided by the NASA Glenn Research

Center. The FMT is functionally equivalent to the 2.3 kW NSTAR ion
thruster that flew on Deep Space 1. NSTAR was the first demonstration
of ion thruster technology as primary propulsion on an interplanetary
spacecraft. ”
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www.engin.umich.edu/dept/aero/spacelab/images/fmt_small.jpg

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 Propellants for Ion Propulsion
Various propellant types have been used. We generally want a cheap
easily ionized, dense propellant with easily accelerated particles.

•Xenon

•Argon

•Krypton

•Cesium

•C60 (Carbon 60)

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DS1 ion propulsion system.

www.agu.org/sci_soc/articles/ nelson.html

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.

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 Resistojet
Propellants:
ammonia, biowastes,
Courtesy Dr. Robert H. Frisbee. hydrazine, hydrogen.
Augmented hydrazine
thruster: augments
catalytic decomposition.
Isp ~ 300 lbf-s/lbm
Input power: few
hundred kilowatts; 60-
90% efficiency.
30% better performance
than cold gas thrusters
www.islandone.org/ APC/Electric/02.html

Technology issues: material/propellant compatibility at high temperatures, heat

transfer; radiation losses.
Heat transfer to gas stream is complicated by the geometries and temperature
ranges typical of resistojets.
Hydrazine resistojets used on several communication satellites: Four TRW
hydrazine thrusters on Ford Aerospace's INTELSAT V satellites for station keeping.
Thrust of 0.22 to 0.49 Newtons and Isp 296 lbf-s/lbm require 250 to 550 Watts of
power. Isp 336 lbf-s/lbm and operational lifetimes > 2.6 x 103 Ns demonstrated.
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 Arcjets

: www.projectrho.com/ rocket/rocket3c2.html

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http://www.aero.kyushu-u.ac.jp/fml/study/arc-thruster/arcjet-thruster.jpg
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 http://www.aero.kyushu-u.ac.jp/fml/study/arc-thruster/arcjet-thruster.jpg

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Arcjet Thruster Design Considerations for Satellites. NASA preferred
reliability practices PD-ED-1253
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 Hydrazine Resistojets
RCA SATCOM, G-Star,
and Spacenet
communication satellites
utilize hydrazine
resistojets manufactured
by Olin Rocket Research
(now Primex Aerospace
Company).

www.islandone.org/ APC/Electric/02.html

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 Augmented Catalytic Thruster
· Schub (N) : 0,8-0,36
· Betriebsdruck (bar) : 26,5-6,2
· Spez. Impuls (s) : 299
· Min. Impuls Bit (mNs) : 88,96
· Gesamtimpuls (kNs) : 524,9
· Masse (kg) : 0,871
· Ventil Leistung (W) : 8,25
· Ventil Heizerleistung (W) : 1,54
· Katalysebett Heizerleistung (W) : 3,93
· Resistojet Heizerleistung (W) : 885-610
· Resistojet Spannung (V) : 29,5-24,5 DC
· Nomineller Betrieb:
3,0 h im Einzelbetrieb
370 h akkumuliert

Abb. 7 : MR-502A - Widerstandsbeheiztes Triebwerk der Firma Primex Aerospace.

www.irs.uni-stuttgart.de/. ../RES/d_res_usa.html
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 Ion Thruster

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 Ion thrusters used for
station-keeping on
geostationary satellites
since 1997. Demonstrated
ability to propel space
probes: encounter of NASA
Deep Space-1 spacecraft
with comet Borrelly in
September 2001.
Ion thrusters unexpectedly
performed the first electric
propulsion aided orbit
transfer of a satellite,
following failed orbital
injection of ESA's Artemis
mission.
2003: first use of a
microwave ion thruster on
Japanese Muses-C
fluid.ippt.gov.pl/ sbarral/ion.html
spacecraft.

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Radio-frequency Ion Thruster Assembly (RITA).
Isp 3000 to 5000 s, adjustable thrust
from 15 to 135%, operating life > 20,000
hours
85% less propellant than bipropellant
thrusters.
A 4100 kg spacecraft in GEO using
conventional propellants over its 15 year
life would save around 574 kg in
propellant mass by using RITA.

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 System Performance

Components are

•Power Supply

•Power preparation and conditioning

1  2
•Thrusters
Pj = mpUe
2
Between the output supply and the jet exhaust
1  2
mpUe
Ps = 2 where ηT = ηSηPPηth
ηT
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 Efficiencies

ηS = 1 for solar arrays since they produce electricity directly

(not this does not account for the 18% to 25% conversion
efficiency of a solar array from solar radiation to
electricity

ηS = 0.1 − 0.3 for a nuclear device that must convert heat

energy to electricity with some type of Engine or
mechanism (thernoelectric, Brayton engine,
Stirling engine)
ηS = 0.92 for electrostatic power preparation.

ηS ~ 0.98 for steady arcjet systems.

ηth ~ 0.5 ~ 0.8 depending on Isp and propellant (Fig. 9.41

from Humble ).

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Also, equations are available to estimate the thermal and power
preparation efficiencies for various Isp and propellants.

From Table 9.11, Humble. For Argon, A = -2.024; B = 0.307

η ppηth = A + B ln(Isp )

At a specific impulse of 2500 sec (Argon), the combined efficiency

above is 37.8%

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 System Mass
It appears that Isp and efficiency get better with more power. When then
would we not want a system with as much power as we can get? POWER
COSTS MASS!
Typically, we use a linear relationship: Mass = βsPs where bs is specific
mass.
For a typical solar array, βs~ 7 to 25 kg/kW, depending on cell efficiency
and substrate type.

(see Table 9.10 from Humble)

For a typical nuclear reactor, (remember, Ps = thermal power); βs~ 2 to 4

kg/kW depending on shielding

Note that we require space radiators to reject the heat dissipated by the
power systems or reactor.

Space Radiator βs~ 0.1 to 0.4 kg/KW of waste heat

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Note: Humble also provides a way to estimate mass of the power
preparation hardware and the thrusters
for common systems:

βpp = 0.2 kg/KW for arcjet , compared to 20 kg/KW for PPT.

For electrostatic, we can combine the power preparation and

thrusters:

β pp + β thη pp = C(Isp ) D

From Table 9.11 For Argon, C = 4490; D = -0.781

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 Mass pp + Massthrusters = C(Isp )D Ps

For Argon, with Ps = 10 KW and Isp = 2500,

Mass pp + Massthrusters = 4490(2500)−0.781(10)

= 99.65kg
So, for a given system, we can calculate the power system mass, the
radiator mass and the pp + thruster mass. Treating Isp as an
independent variable and knowing from the rocket equation,

∆v
Mi msys + mp + mpc g0Isp
MassRatio = = =e
Mf msys
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As Isp increases, Mass ratio decreases, but if Isp increases, Ps
increases, system mass decreases, so payload mass decreases.
These are competing effects, so there is usually an optimum Isp that
results from the compromise. Optimum Isp depends on many
systems-level design characteristics

(Fig. 9.3 in Humble)

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 Optimum Specific Impulse

Courtesy: Robert.H. Frisbee, JPL

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