Ms
Käthe Dannenmayer
(European Space Agency)
3/2/17, 9:10 AM
Oral
Today electric propulsion is considered or being used for several applications such as orbit raising/orbit topping and station keeping of telecommunication satellites, orbit maintenance and deorbiting of constellations of small satellites (OneWeb, LEOSAT, SpaceX, etc.), for transfer manoeuvers (e.g. BepiColombo transfer to Mercury), formation flying of satellites, etc. The required thrust...
Tommaso Misuri
(SITAEL)
3/2/17, 9:40 AM
Oral
Low power electric propulsion is an enabling technology for a number of future missions, especially the ones involving mini- and micro- satellites. Currend trend is to launch many low-cost spacecraft to accomplish a wide variety of tasks, ranging from Earth monitoring to communication. A brilliant example of it is the idea of developing a constellation of small satellites placed in LEO and...
Prof.
Mariano Andrenucci
(Sitael)
3/2/17, 10:10 AM
The increase of available power on board of modern spacecraft is paving the way to the use of very high power electric propulsion systems for a variety of deep space exploration missions to cislunar space, asteroids and planets of the inner solar system, as well as private commercial space missions. Hall thruster technology offers a favourable combination of performance, reliability, and...
Dr
Stéphane Mazouffre
(CNRS - ICARE)
3/2/17, 11:10 AM
Oral
The Hall thruster (HT) is a gridless positive ion accelerator used for spacecraft propulsion. The original idea of ion acceleration in a quasi-neutral magnetized plasma discharge was introduced in the mid-1960s. The first HT was successfully operated in space in 1972 aboard the former USSR Meteor satellite. Since that time numerous works have been performed, the technology has greatly evolved...
Dr
Jacek Kurzyna
(Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion)
3/2/17, 11:40 AM
Oral
Since the first launch on board of the Russian satellite of Meteor series Hall effect thruster (HET) has become a serious competitor for the classic rocket technology as far as station keeping and positioning, orbit rising or even deep space mission driving is concerned. Despite of the fact that lasting more than 50 years development of HET resulted in the matured and well optimized design,...
Prof.
Amnon Fruchtman
(H.I.T. - Holon Institute of Technology)
3/2/17, 12:10 PM
Oral
The possibility of realizing a high thrust-over-power collisional Hall thruster will be discussed.
A major figure of merit in propulsion in general and in electric propulsion in particular, is the thrust per unit of deposited power, the ratio of thrust over power. We have recently demonstrated experimentally and theoretically [1-5] that for a fixed deposited power in the ions, the momentum...
Prof.
Igal Kronhaus
(Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
3/2/17, 2:05 PM
Oral
Following the general trend in miniaturization of technology there is a growing interest in using microsatellites (< 100 kg) and nanosatellites (< 10 kg) to replace larger and more expensive platforms. To enable these capabilities, small, low mass, and efficient electric propulsion systems are required. Due to their inherent propellant mass economy, Hall effect thrusters (HET) are an obvious...
Dr
laurent GARRIGUES
(Laplace, CNRS)
3/2/17, 2:35 PM
Oral
Hall Thrusters (HTs) – also referred as Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT) in the literature – are now a mature technology to be used on board satellites to maintain a spacecraft on a geostationary orbit and for scientific probe missions able to explore the solar system. In a HT, a heavy gas, most often xenon, is introduced through an anode plane and is ionized by an electron current coming...
Mrs
Julia Duras
(Nuremberg Institute of Technology)
3/2/17, 3:05 PM
Oral
The development of optimized electrostatic ion thrusters for space propulsion is until now a trial-and-error procedure. The need for expensive prototypes, extensive testing and iterative improvements is non-optimal in terms of time and costs. In other fields of research modeling is used to minimize the number of iterations, replacing real prototypes by virtual prototypes tested in numerical...
Mr
Florian Marmuse
(LPP - UPMC)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
Evaluating a thruster performances in a representative operational environment is a key milestone towards its use in space. However, the limited size and pumping speed of currently available test facilities limit the validity of most performance measurements, from the plume divergence to the thruster lifetime expectancy. Based on a literature review, this poster features a panel of the...
Dr
Grazia Cicala
(CNR-NANOTEC)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
Neutralizer cathodes used as electron sources represent a key component of electric propulsion (EP) systems for spacecrafts. In EP systems such as electric propulsion thrusters, ion engines and hall thrusters, a positive ion beam is ejected at high speed to produce thrust. Over time, the ion beam expands and becomes fuzzy for the space charge formation that reduces the thrust and causes arcing...
Mr
Francesco Paolo Micchetti
(EnginSoft)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
A software methodology implemented through an extremely user-friendly UI, able to simulate an Hall Effect Thruster, starting from its physical dimensions up to specific material and atomic species data, will be showcased.
Mr
Romain Lucken
(Laboratoire de physique des Plasmas)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
R. Lucken, T. Lafleur, P. Grondein, A. Bourdon, P. Chabert, A. Aanesland
LPP, CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Sud, Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Universitś, PSL Research University, 91128 Palaiseau, France
PEGASES is an ion-ion thruster concept developed at LPP for over ten years. The neutralization of the plume by alternate negative...
Marco Cavenago
(LNL)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
Complex plasma devices as thrusters or ion sources for fusion and their physical models at reduced size, as the negative ion source NIO1 developed by Consorzio RFX and INFN-LNL, rely on several accessories, like coil shielding, cesium vaporizers, probes and bias electrodes, which needs to be separately tested , both to avoid delays in the major source schedule and to better understand...
Mr
Antoine Tavant
(LPP)
3/2/17, 4:00 PM
Poster
Hall effect thrusters (HET) are one of the main technology used and studies for spacecraft propulsion. Grid-less, they present net advantages, resulting of an increasing need for predictive and accurate models, and a better understanding of the complex behavior of the plasma.
HETs consist of three main components : a magnetic circuit used to produce a mostly radial magnetic field; an...
Mr
Vivien Croes
(Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas/Safran Aircraft Engines)
3/3/17, 9:30 AM
Oral
Despite electric propulsion (EP) having its beginning in the 1960's, its full potential has only been realized in the last few years, with all-electric communication satellites and large small-satellite constellation projects. Since Hall effect thrusters (HETs) are one of the most successful EP technologies, there is an increasing need for accurate and predictive models, in order to develop...
Dr
Francesco Taccogna
(CNR-Nanotec-PLasMI)
3/3/17, 10:00 AM
Oral
A realistic three-dimensional fully kinetic particle simulation of a Hall-effect thruster discharge and plume regions has been attempted.
The model consists of a Particle-in-Cell (PIC) methodology tracking electrons and propellant ions in their self-consistent electric field. A detailed secondary electron emission representation is also implemented in addition with electron-atoms and...
Pierluigi Veltri
(LNL)
3/3/17, 10:30 AM
Oral
Neutral Beam Injectors (NBI) are fundamental to increase the plasma temperature in magnetic confinement fusion devices. In the perspective of dense and large plasmas foreseen in advanced experiments, the use of negative ions is needed to efficiently produce neutrals in MeV energy range, able to penetrate the plasma core. In the framework of the accompanying activities in support to the ITER...
Dr
Gianpiero Colonna
(Plasmi Lab at CNR-NANOTEC)
3/3/17, 10:50 AM
Oral
The evolution of atmospheric pressure hydrogen plasma under the action of repetitively ns electrical pulse has been investigated using a 0D state-to-state kinetic model that self-consistently couples the master equation of heavy particles and the Boltzmann equation for free electrons. The kinetic model includes, together with atomic hydrogen states and the vibrational kinetics of H2 ground...
Dr
Francesco Taccogna
(CNR-Nanotec-PLasMI)
3/3/17, 11:15 AM
Oral
It is well known that negative ions used for neutral beam injection in thermonuclear fusion reactor are mostly produced by conversion of hot atoms on caesiated surface. In this contribution we are investigating the possibility to produce hot atom by molecular dissociation process in HT configuration, i.e. finding the best operative conditions to increase the molecular dissociation in place of...
Dr
Giuseppe Torrisi
(LNS)
3/3/17, 11:35 AM
Oral
We present a numerical approach to solve the 3D Maxwell-Lorentz system with the aim of investigating the interaction of the electromagnetic waves with the magnetized non-homogeneous plasma produced inside Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources. The FEM COMSOL Multiphysics® software was used to compute the electromagnetic field in a cavity filled by the anisotropic-inhomogeneous plasma,...
Dr
Igor Kaganovich
(PPPL)
3/3/17, 12:05 PM
Oral
Producing an overdense background plasma for neutralization purposes with a density that is high compared to the ion beam density is not always experimentally possible. We show experimentally [1] and making use of particle-in-cell simulations [2,3] that even an underdense background plasma with a small relative density can achieve high neutralization of intense ion beam pulses if enough...
Prof.
Pavarin Daniele
(University of Padua)
3/3/17, 12:35 PM
Oral
Propulsion technology based on helicon thruster was always considered promising because in principle it allows for long life time and versatility in using different type of gases. It is relatively compact with respect to other thruster technologies and thus is also considered promising for high power applications.
Moreover, helicon thruster technology has some remarkable features which makes...
Andrea Lucca Fabris
(Surrey Space Centre)
3/3/17, 2:20 PM
Oral
The Quad Confinement Thruster is a DC magnetized plasma propulsion system invented and developed within the Surrey Space Centre (University of Surrey). The QCT contains a square discharge channel with the anode located at the closed, upstream end. An external hollow cathode neutralizer provides primary electrons for triggering the ionization process (via electron-neutral collisions) and...
Dr
Mario Merino
(Universidad Carlos III Madrid)
3/3/17, 2:50 PM
Oral
Understanding the expansion of the plasma plume produced by an electric propulsion system into vacuum is a fundamental problem for predicting the thruster performance, improving thruster design, and flagging any potential spacecraft integration problems due to plasma-surface interaction.
This talk covers, firstly, the key challenges of modelling a magnetized plasma jet in a divergent magnetic...
Prof.
Fabrizio Paganucci
(Università di Pisa)
3/3/17, 4:15 PM
Oral
Hollow cathodes are sources of electrons to ionize the propellant and neutralize the ion beam exhausted by ion and Hall effect thrusters. A complete understanding of the operation of hollow cathodes is hindered by the complexity of their driving physical processes along with the difficult plasma diagnostics due to the small size (typically a few millimeters in diameter) and high operating...
Marco Cavenago
(LNL)
3/3/17, 4:45 PM
Oral
