Physics of closed drift thrusters
- 1 January 1999
- journal article
- review article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Plasma Sources Science and Technology
- Vol. 8 (1), R1-R20
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0963-0252/8/1/021
Abstract
Closed drift thrusters are reviewed. The publications on these thrusters constitute a large body of information. This article can therefore include only the most prominent theoretical and experimental features of closed drift thrusters. In some regards, this article is also an attempted synthesis of the differing views of these thrusters found in literature, as well as in our own work. In a closed drift thruster, the electric field that accelerates the ions is established by an electron current that passes through and is impeded by a magnetic field. The precessing electrons in this magnetic field follow a closed drift path giving this thruster its name. Closed drift thrusters are divided into magnetic layer and anode layer types, based both on the geometrical and material differences in the discharge channels of the two types, and on the different physical processes that take place within the discharge plasma. Considered as a whole, the publications on closed drift thrusters constitute an impressive body of information that, for the most part, was generated in Russia independently of US research on electric thrusters.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Electric thruster performance for orbit raising and maneuveringJournal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 1984
- SERT II - Mission, thruster performance, and in-flight thrust measurementsJournal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 1971
- A space-charge-sheath electric thruster.AIAA Journal, 1967