Speaker
Mr
Romain Lucken
(Laboratoire de physique des Plasmas)
Description
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 and positive ion extraction leads to a thruster design where no external neutralizer is required anymore. Formerly simulated with an electropositive Argon plasma [1], a first 0D fluid model of this thruster was developed including more complex molecular iodine chemistry [2]. Recently, neutral gas heating by ion acceleration in the sheath was added to the model, which has a very large influence in the neutral power balance.
Following the description of collisionless heating in inductively coupled RF plasma provided in [3], stochastic heating was also taken into account both through an effective collision frequency, and a heating term in the electron power balance. Refining the global model leads leads to a better predictability of the thruster efficiency.
Both numerical PIC simulations and expertiments are in progress to validate the analysis that were conducted in this paper.
[1] P. Chabert, J. Arancibia Monreal, J. Bredin, L. Popelier, and A. Aanesland. Physics of Plasma, July 2012.
[2] P. Grondein, T. Lafleur, P. Chabert, and A. Aanesland. Physics of Plasmas, 2016.
[3] M. A. Lieberman and A. J. Lichtenberg. Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials Processing. Wiley, second edition edition, 2005.
Primary author
Mr
Romain Lucken
(Laboratoire de physique des Plasmas)
Co-authors
Prof.
Ane Aanesland
(LPP)
Prof.
Anne Bourdon
(LPP)
Prof.
Pascal Chabert
(LPP)
Dr
Pascaline Grondein
(LPP)
Dr
Trevor Lafleur
(LPP, CNES)
