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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 1, 2010 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

schematic diagram of thruster

Michael Keidar

"Micro-Vacuum Arc Thruster for Nanosatellites"

ABSTRACT -- A new micro-cathode thruster being developed at the George Washington University will be available for use on nanosatellites. The thruster uses a magnetically enhanced vacuum arc between the cathode and anode. The material of the solid cathode is converted to plasma. (The cathode is spring-loaded, so that fresh cathode material moves into place as it is consumed.) The plasma is directed by an applied magnetic field. It is then accelerated by an electric field to between 10 and 30 km/s.

The arc thruster is well suited to small satellites. The mass is small: the laboratory version is only 200 grams. The power requirement is only 1 watt. The volume is small. For example, it is only 4% of a Cubesat, a new satellite type that is 10 cm x 10 cm x 30 cm. (The new thruster has, in fact, been proposed for a mission similar to the Goddard-managed cubesat Firelfy, which will study plasma processes in the upper atmosphere. The thruster's exhaust could be used to trigger atmospheric plasma processes.)

SPEAKER -- Dr. Michael Keidar graduated in 1997 with a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Tel Aviv, with dissertation concentrating on plasma expansion and particle transport in vacuum arc thrusters. He is currently an assistant professor at the George Washington University, where his research group investigates interaction of atmospheric plasma jets with living tissue, fabrication of carbon nanotubes, laser ablation, and electric propulsion theory and design. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and his paper on plasma flow in Hall thrusters was listed among top cited papers in the field of plasma physics by the Physics of Plasmas journal.


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov