The pulsed inductive thruster (PIT) is an electrodeless plasma accelerator employing a large (1m diameter) spiral coil energized by a capacitor bank discharge. The bank can be repetitively recharged by a nuclear electric generator for continuous MW level operation. The coil can be designed as a transformer that permits thruster operation at the generator voltage, which results in a low thruster specific mass. Specific impulse (Isp) can be readily altered by changing the propellant valve plenum pressure. Performance curves generated from mesausred impulse, injected mass and capacitor bank energy are presented for argon, ammonia, hydrazine, carbon dioxide and helium. The highest performance measured to date is 48% efficiency at 4000 seconds Isp with ammonia. The development of a theoretical model of the thruster, which assumes a fully ionized plasma, is presented in an appendix.
Pulsed inductive thruster performance data base for megawatt‐class engine applications
10th SymposiumùSpace Nuclear Power and Propulsion ; 1993 ; Albuquerque, NM, USA
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 271 , 3 ; 1425-1434
1993-01-20
10 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Modeling and Analysis of a Megawatt-Class Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster
Online Contents | 2004
|Status of Pulsed Inductive Thruster Research
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2002
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