Specific Charge and Mass Flow Distribution in a Colloid Beam PDF Download

Author: Jerrell Maurice Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Space vehicles
Languages : en
Pages : 63

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Book Description
An experimental program established that a multiple needed colloid thruster produces a beam with anisotropic current, specific charge, and mass flow distributions as a function of beam half-angle. Data reduction and analysis indicated that the assumptions of beam isotropy yields valid relative performance but the absolute value of performance determined from the time-of-flight spectrometer is questionable. A segmented time-of-flight collector, consisting of ten electrically isolated rings which could be connected to simulate a total collector, was the primary diagnostic tool. For thrust, specific impulse, and efficiency, results from the segmented and total collector differed by up to 30%. Even larger differences were observed in the case of mass flow. By moving the collector, it was found that the distance between the source and time-of-flight collector has a significant effect on specific charge and current. (Author).