Effect of Spacecraft Charging on Performance of Ion Electrospray Propulsion Systems
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IAC-24-C4-5-4.pdf
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2.78 MB
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Author(s)
Shaik, Saba Z.
Corrado, Matthew N.
Lozano, Paulo C.
Date Issued
October 14, 2024
Publisher
International Astronautical Federation
Citation
Shaik, Saba Z., Corrado, Matthew N. and Lozano, Paulo C. 2024. "Effect of Spacecraft Charging on Performance of Ion Electrospray Propulsion Systems."
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Ion electrospray propulsion systems are known to induce moderate levels of spacecraft charging when operated in
a passive dual-polarity neutralization scheme. Here, the relationship between this charging and the performance of
the electrospray thrusters is experimentally assessed. We characterize a passively-fed ion electrospray thruster in a
simulated spacecraft charging environment with the ionic liquid propellant EMI-BF4. Performance metrics, including
thrust, specific impulse, and component efficiencies are estimated with the thruster operated at emission currents of
±150 µA for prescribed spacecraft biases between 0 and ±800 V. When the spacecraft and plume are the same polarity,
thrusters exhibit a narrower plume and produce more thrust with increasing spacecraft bias. Conversely, when the
spacecraft and plume are opposite polarities, thrusters show increasingly divergent plumes that are attracted back to the
spacecraft, resulting in less thrust being produced at higher spacecraft biases. The combined thrust output for a dualpolarity pair of thrusters was estimated to decrease by about 36% at a spacecraft bias of 800 V and 25% at a spacecraft
bias of −800 V. These results show that spacecraft charging is a critical consideration for determining the true in-space
performance of ion electrospray propulsion systems.
Description
75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Milan, Italy, 14-18 October 2024
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://iafastro.directory/iac/paper/id/88148/summary/
