High Power Electric Propulsion

High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) is a variation of ion thruster for use in nuclear electric propulsion applications.[1][2][3] It was ground-tested in 2003 by NASA and was intended for use on the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, which was canceled in 2005.

HiPEP test

Theory

The HiPEP thruster differs from earlier ion thrusters because the xenon ions are produced using a combination of microwave and magnetic fields. The ionization is achieved through a process called Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR). In ECR, the small number of free electrons present in the neutral gas gyrate around the static magnetic field lines. The injected microwaves' frequency is set to match this gyrofrequency and a resonance is established. Energy is transferred from the right-hand polarized portion of the microwave to the electrons. This energy is then transferred to the bulk gas/plasma via the rare - yet important - collisions between electrons and neutrals. During these collisions, electrons can be knocked free from the neutrals, forming ion-electron pairs. The process is a highly efficient means of creating a plasma in low density gases. Previously the electrons required were provided by a hollow cathode.

Specifications

The thruster itself is in the 20-50 kW class, with a specific impulse of 6,000-9,000 seconds, and a propellant throughput capability exceeding 100 kg/kW.[2] The goal of the project, as of June 2003, was to achieve a technology readiness level of 4-5 within 2 years.

The pre-prototype HiPEP produced 670 mN of thrust at a power level of 39.3 kW using 7.0 mg/s of fuel giving a specific impulse of 9620 s.[2][4] Downrated to 24.4 kW, the HiPEP used 5.6 mg/s of fuel giving a specific impulse of 8270 s and 460 mN of thrust.

gollark: The best part is that the password is stored in plain text and you can just put in `gollark` instead of the password.
gollark: *Or* I can ignore it and add it as an alias in potatOS...
gollark: ```PotatOS OS/Conveniently Self-Propagating System/Sandbox/Compilation of Useless Programs We are not responsible for- headaches- rashes- persistent/non-persistent coughs- virii- backdoors- spinal cord sclerosis- hypertension- cardiac arrest- regular arrest, by police or whatever- death- computronic discombobulation- loss of data- gain of data- frogsor any other issue caused directly or indirectly due to use of this product. Best viewed in Internet Explorer 6 running on a Difference Engine emulated under MacOS 7. Features:- Fortunes/Dwarf Fortress output/Chuck Norris jokes on boot (wait, IS this a feature?)- (other) viruses (how do you get them in the first place? running random files like this?) cannot do anything particularly awful to your computer - uninterceptable (except by crashing the keyboard shortcut daemon, I guess) keyboard shortcuts allow easy wiping of the non-potatOS data so you can get back to whatever nonsense you do fast- Skynet (rednet-ish stuff over websocket to my server) and Lolcrypt (encoding data as lols and punctuation) built in for easy access!- Convenient OS-y APIs - add keyboard shortcuts, spawn background processes & do "multithreading"-ish stuff.- Great features for other idio- OS designers, like passwords and fake loading (set potatOS.stupidity.loading [time], est potatOS.stupidity.password [password]).- Digits of Tau available via a convenient command ("tau")- Potatoplex and Loading built in ("potatoplex"/"loading") (potatoplex has many undocumented options)!- Stack traces (yes, I did steal them from MBS)- Backdoors- er, remote debugging access (it's secured, via ECC signing on disks and websocket-only access requiring a key for the other one)- All this useless random junk can autoupdate (this is probably a backdoor)!- EZCopy allows you to easily install potatOS on another device, just by sticking it in the disk drive of another potatOS device!- fs.load and fs.dump - probably helpful somehow.```
gollark: <@236628809158230018> https://pastebin.com/RM13UGFa
gollark: It, um, teaches you not to trust any OSes?

References
  1. The Glenn Research Center. NASA.
  2. HIGH POWER ELECTRIC PROPULSION PROGRAM (HiPEP). Glenn Research Center - NASA. 22 December 2008.
  3. "The High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) Ion Thruster NASA/TM—2004-213194 AIAA–2004–3812"..
  4. Page 8 of the September 2004 HiPEP report NASA/TM—2004-213194

See also
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.