One-millipound mercury ion thruster

Abstract

A mercury ion thruster has been developed for efficient operation at the nominal 1-mlb thrust level with a specific impulse of about 3,000 sec and a total power consumption of about 120 W. At a beam voltage of 1,200 V and beam current of 72 mA, the discharge chamber operates with a propellant efficiency of 93.8% at an ion-generation energy of 276 eV/ion. The 8-cm diameter thruster advances proven component technology to assure the capability for thruster operation over an accumulated beam-on time in excess of 20,000 hours with a capability for 10,000 on-off duty cycles. Discharge chamber optimization has combined stable current-voltage characteristics with high performance efficiency by careful placement of the discharge cathode near the location of a magnetic-field zero just upstream of the thruster endplate.