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Divergent Plume Reduction Of A High-Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster, Christopher M. Barlog
Divergent Plume Reduction Of A High-Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster, Christopher M. Barlog
Master's Theses
High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thrusters (HEMPTs) are a relatively new form of electric propulsion that show promise for use on a variety of missions and have several advantages over their older EP competitors. One such advantage is their long predicted lifetime and minimal wall erosion due to a unique periodic permanent magnet system. A laboratory HEMPT was built and donated by JPL for testing at Cal Poly. Previous work was done to characterize the performance of this thruster and it was found to exhibit a large plume divergence, resulting in decreased thrust and specific impulse. This thesis explores the design …