ELECTRIC PROPULSION

Electric rocket propulsion devices use electrical energy for heating and/or
directly ejecting propellant, utilizing an energy source that is independent of
the propellant itself..
The basic subsystems of a typical electric propulsion thruster are
(a) a raw energy source such as solar or nuclear energy with its auxiliaries
such as concentrators, heat conductors, pumps, panels, radiators, and/or
controls;
(b) conversion devices to transform this energy into electrical form at the
proper voltage, frequency, pulse rate, and current suitable for the electrical
propulsion system;
(c) a propellant system for storing, metering, and delivering the propellant;
and
(d) one or more thrusters to convert the electric energy into kinetic energy of
the exhaust.
Electric propulsion is unique in that it includes both thermal and non-
thermal systems as classified we can distinguish the following three
fundamental types:
Electrothermal: Propellant is heated electrically and expanded thermodynamically;
i.e., the gas is accelerated to supersonic speeds through a nozzle, as in the
chemical rocket.
Electrostatic: Acceleration is achieved by the interaction of electrostatic fields on
non-neutral or charged propellant particles such as atomic ions, droplets, or
colloids.
Electromagnetic: Acceleration is achieved by the interaction of electric and
magnetic fields within a plasma. Moderately dense plasmas are high temperature or
non-equilibrium gases, electrically neutral and reasonably good conductors of
electricity.
ELECTRO-THERMAL THRUSTERS

The electric energy is used to heat the propellant, which is then thermodynamically
expanded through a nozzle. There are two basic types in use today:
I. The resistojet, in which components with high electrical resistance dis
sipate power and in turn heat the propellant, largely by convection.
2. The arcjet, in which current flows through the bulk of the propellant gas which has
been ionized in an electrical discharge. Being relatively devoid of material limitations,
this method introduces more heat directly into the gas (it can reach local temperatures
of 20,000 K or more).

Resistojets
These devices are the simplest type of electrical thruster because the technology is based
on conventional conduction, convection, and radiation heat exchange. The propellant
is heated by flowing over an ohmically heated refractory-metal surface, such as
(1) coils of heated wire,
(2) through heated hollow tubes,
(3) over heated knife blades, and (4) over heated cyclinders. Power requirements range
between 1 W and several kilowatts.
a broad range of terminal voltages, AC or DC, can be designed for, and there are
no special requirements for power conditioning.
Thrust can be steady or intermittent as programmed in the propellant flow.
Arcjets
The basic elements of an arcjet are thruster where the relative simplicity of the physical
design masks its rather complicated phenomenology.
The arcjet overcomes the gas temperature limitations of the resistojet by the of an
electric arc for direct heating of the propellant stream to temperatures much higher
than the wall temperatures.
The arc stretches between the tip of a central cathode and an anode, which is part
of the coaxial nozzle that accelerates the heated propellant. These electrodes must
be electrically insulated from each other and be able to withstand high temperatures.
At the nozzle it is desirable for the arc to attach itself as a diffuse annulus in the
divergent portion just downstream of the throat. The region of attachment is known
to move up or down depending on the magnitude of the arc voltage and on the mass
flow rate. In reality, arcs are highly filamentary and tend to heat only a small
portion of the flowing gas unless the throat dimension is sufficiently small; bulk
heating is done by mixing, often with the aid of vortex flow and turbulence. Since
not all the heat is released prior to expansion in the nozzle, there is some loss in that
heat released in the divergent portion of the nozzle is not effective in increasing the
Mach number of the flow velocity in the exit divergent section.
Arcs are inherently unstable, often forming pinches and wiggles; they can be somewhat
stabilized by an external electric field or by swirling vortex motion in the outer layers of
the gas flow. The flow structure at the nozzle throat is quite non uniform and arc
instabilities and erosion at the throat are very limiting. The mixing of cooler outer
gas with the arc-heated inner gas tends to stabilize the arc while lowering its
conductivity, which in turn requires higher voltages of operation
Electrostatic Devices
Electrostatic thrusters rely on Coulomb forces to accelerate a propellant com posed of
non-neutral charged particles. They can operate only in a near vacuum.
electrostatic thrusters use charged heavy-molecular-mass atoms as positive ions (a
proton is 1840 times heavier than the electron and a typical ion of interest contains
hundreds of protons).
Electrostatic thrusters can be categorized by their source of charged particles as
follows:
Electron bombardment thrusters. Positive ions from a monatomic gas are produced by
bombarding the gas or vapor, such as xenon or mercury, with electrons emitted
from a heated cathode. Ionization can be either DC or RF.
Ionization of a gas by electron bombardment is a well-established technology.
Electrons are emitted from a thermionic (hot) cathode or the more efficient hollow
cathode and are forced to interact with the gaseous propellant flow in a suitable
3
ionization chamber. The chamber pressures are low, typically 10- torr or 0.134 Pa.
Figure depicts a typical electron bombardment ionizer which contains neutral
atoms, positive ions, and electrons. Emitted electrons are attracted toward the
cylindrical anode but are forced by the axial magnetic field to spiral in the chamber,
causing numerous collisions with propellant atoms which lead to ionization. A radial
electric field removes the electrons from the chamber and an axial electric field
moves the ions toward the accelerator grids. These grids act as porous electrodes,
which electrostatically accelerate the positive ions. Loss of electrons is prevented by
maintaining the cathode potential negatively biased on both the inner grid electrode
and the opposite wall of the chamber. Electrons are routed from the cylindrical
anode through an external circuit to another hot cathode at the exhaust beam in
order to neutralize the exit beam.
2. Ion propulsion thrusters: Positive ions are produced by passing the propellant
vapor, usually cesium, through a hot (about l l00°C or 2000°F) porous tungsten
contact ionizer. Cesium vapor was used extensively in the original ion engines.
Figure shows a cross section of an ion propulsion thruster using xenon as a propellant. It
has three perforated electrically charged grids: the inner one keeps the electrons in the
ionizer, the middle one has a high voltage (1000 V or more) and accelerates the ions,
and the outer one keeps the neutralizing electrons from entering the accelerator region.
Each grid hole is lined up with a similar opening in the other grids and the ion beam
flows through these holes. The neutralizer electron source is positioned outside the
beam. Other key components heaters for the ionizer and neutralizer cathode,
propellant feed and electrical isolator, electrical insulators, and permanent magnets.

3. Field emission or colloid thrusters. Tiny droplets of propellant are charged either
positively or negatively as these droplets pass through an intense electric field
discharge. The stability of large, charged particles remains a challenge.
Electromagnetic Thrusters
This third major type of electric propulsion device accelerates propellant gas that
has been heated to a plasma state.
Plasmas are mixtures of electrons, positive ions, and neutrals that readily conduct
electricity at temperatures usually above 5000 K or 9000 K.
According to electromagnetic theory, whenever a conductor carries a current
perpendicular to a magnetic field, a body force is exerted on the conductor in a
direction at right angles to both the current and the magnetic field.
Many conceptual arrangements have undergone laboratory study, some with
external and some with self-generated magnetic fields, some suited to continuous
thrusting and some limited to pulsed thrusting.

Conventional Thrusters-MPD and PPT. The description of magneto plasma-

dynamic (MPD) and pulsed-plasma ( PPT) electromagnetic thrusters is based on
the Faraday accelerator. In its simplest form, a plasma conductor carries a
current in the direction of an applied electric field but perpendicular to a
magnetic field, with both of these vectors in turn normal to the direction of
plasma acceleration.
Figure shows the simplest plasma accelerator, employing a self-induced
magnetic field. This is a pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), accelerating plasmas
"struck" between two rail electrodes and fed by a capacitor, which is in turn
charged by a power supply. The current flow through the plasma quickly
discharges the capacitor and hence the mass flow rate must be pulsed according
to the discharge schedule. The discharge current forms a current loop, which
induces a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of the rails.
the Lorentz force acts on the plasma, accelerating it along the rails.

For a rail widths, the total internal accelerating force has the value F = sIB, where
I is the total current and B the magnitude of the self-induced field. Hence no
area changes are required to accelerate the propellant. Some electrical energy
is lost to the electrodes and the ionization energy is never recovered; moreover,
this particular plasma does not exit well collimated, and propellant utilization
tends to be poor.

Figure below shows a hybrid electro thermal-electro rnagnetic concept MPD. It produces
continuous thrust. Compared to an electro thermal arcjets, these devices operate at
relatively lower pressures and much higher electric and magnetic fields. Hydrogen and
argon are common propellants for such MPD arcjets. As with other electromagnetic
thrusters, exhaust beam neutralization is unnecessary. Problems of electrode erosion,
massive electrical components, and low efficiencies (with their associated heat
dissipation) have slowed implementation of these devices.

Hall-Effect Thrusters: When plasma densities are low enough and/or

magnetic fields are high enough, the Hall-effect electric field becomes quite significant.
The thruster uses the same phenomenon that is observed in the semiconductor
Hall effect where a voltage arises transverse to the applied electric fi eld
Figure shows a cutout of an SPT, stationary plasma thruster design with a redundant
set of hollow cathodes and the solenoid magnetic pair responsible for the magnetic field.
In Hall thrusters, the propellant gas, xenon or argon, is fed in the vicinity of the anode
some gas is also provided through the cathode for more efficient cathode operation.
APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRIC PROPULSION
(1) Overcoming translational and rotational perturbations in satellite orbits, such as
north-south station keeping (NSSK) of satellites in geosynchronous orbits
(GEO) or aligning telescopes or antennas or drag compensation of satellites
in low (LEO) and medium earth orbits (MEO). For a typical north-south
station-keeping task in a 350-km orbit, a velocity increment of about 50
m/sec every year or 500 m/sec for IO years might be needed. Several
different electric propulsion systems have actually flown in this type of
mission.
(2) Increasing satellite speed while overcoming the relatively weak gravitational
field some distance away from the earth, such as orbit raising from a low
earth orbit (LEO) to a higher orbit or even to a geosynchronous orbit
(GEO). Circularizing an elliptical orbit may require 2000 m/sec and going
from LEO to GEO typically might require a velocity increase
of up to 6000 m/sec. Several electric propulsion units are being developed
for these types of mission.
(3) Potential missions such as interplanetary travel and deep space probes are also
candidates for electric propulsion. A return to the moon, missions to Mars,
Jupiter, and missions to comets and asteroids are of present interest.
These all require relatively high thrust and power. A few electric thrusters for
this category of missions (I 00 kW) are being investigated. The power
supply for these missions may require other than solar power; nuclear
sources need to be considered.

NUCLEAR ROCKETS
A nuclear rocket is a proposed spacecraft propulsion technology. In a nuclear thermal
rocket a working fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, is heated to a high temperature in a nuclear
reactor, and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust. In this kind of thermal
rocket, the nuclear reactor's energy replaces the chemical energy of the propellant's reactive
chemicals in a chemical rocket. The thermal heater / inert propellant paradigm as opposed
to the reactive propellants of chemical rockets turns out to produce a superior effective
exhaust velocity, and therefore a superior propulsive efficiency, with specific impulses on
the order of twice that of chemical engines.
SOLAR SAIL
Solar sails also called light sails or photon sails are a form of spacecraft propulsion using
radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. High-energy laser beams could be
used as an alternative light source to exert much greater force than would be possible using
sunlight, a concept known as beam sailing.
Solar sail craft offer the possibility of low-cost operations combined with long operating
lifetimes. Since they have few moving parts and use no propellant, they can potentially be
used numerous times for delivery of payloads

Experiments shown that the total force exerted on an 800 by 800 meter solar sail, is about
5N at Earth's distance from the Sun, It is a low-thrust propulsion system, similar to
spacecraft propelled by electric engines, but that force exerted almost constantly and the
collective effect over time is great enough to be considered a potential manner of
propelling spacecraft.
 QUESTIONS

1. Explain the different classification of Chemical rocket?

2. Why we are using solid motors in first stage of rocket?
3. Why a liquid propellant rocket system is called an engine system?
4. What are the different performance parameters of rocket engine or motor?
5. What are the specialties of hybrid rockets? Describe in detail.
6. What do you mean by Hall Effect?
7. Write notes on
(a) Resistoject
(b) MPD
8. What are factors do you think would cause the development of Arcjet from
resistojets?
9. List out the application of electric propulsion.
10. Describe briefly about Ion propulsion.
11. What are the advantages of liquid propellant rockets over solid propellant rockets?
12. Why do you think that hybrid propulsion is also needed as rocket propulsion
system? Justify it with already applied cases.
13. List out the various propulsion systems according to the increase in order of
Specific impulse.
14. What are advantages and disadvantages of nuclear rocket propulsion?
15. Describe briefly about the different electrostatic thrust with neat sketches.
16. What do you mean by solar sail? With schematics elaborate the concept.
17. What are the constructional advantages of Solid motor rocket over the liquid engine
rockets?
18. Which of the following type of propulsion system is useful for deep space
application?
(a) Solid propellant system
(b) Liquid propellant system
(c) Hybrid propulsion system
(d) Electric propulsion system
19. A rocket is to be launched from the bottom of a very deep crater on Mars for earth
return. The specific impulse of the rocket, measured in seconds, is to be normalized
by the acceleration due to gravity at
(A) the bottom of the crater on Mars.
(B) Mars standard “sea level”.
(C) earth’s standard sea level.
(D) the same depth of the crater on earth.
20. A rocket motor has combustion chamber temperature of 2600 K and the products
have molecular weight of 25 g/mol and ratio of specific heats 1.2. The universal gas
constant is 8314 J/kg-mole-K. The value of theoretical c* (in m/s) is ____.