Thrust and efficiency of a self-field MPD thruster

Abstract

Thrust and efficiency of a quasi-steady multi-MW argon MPD thruster are determined for one-millisecond current pulses. Terminal voltage and impulse bit per pulse are measured for a benchmark thruster geometry on a swinging gate thrust stand in a dielectric vacuum tank, at a background pressure of 0.0001 torr, for a range of argon flow rates and arc currents. The quasi-steady thrust data scale quadratically with arc current, and confirm previous estimates of the electromagnetic and electrothermal components of thrust from magnetic and pressure probe measurements. Thruster efficiency is found to increase monotonically with specific impulse, reaching a value of 25% for 4.5 to 6.0 g/sec at 2000 seconds. Results of further experiments show that the inferred specific impulse for voltage fluctuation onset can be increased to 3000 seconds, and the thrust efficiency to above 30%.