Colloid Advanced Development Program.

Abstract

This report is a technical summary of the system development phase of the Colloid Advanced Development Program. The program objective was to flight-qualify and radiation-harden a high performance colloid thruster system. Two prototype systems were developed. One operated in a constant current control mode, the other in a constant power, constant mass flow control mode. At start-of-life, the thruster produced 1-millipound thrust and greater than 1350 seconds specific impulse for 70 watts of input power to the propulsion system. The propulsion system included a 432-needle array thruster, thermionic tungsten filament wire neutralizer, propellant storage and feed system, and a power conditioning and control system.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA026723

Entities

People

  • S. Zafran

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Control Systems
  • Engineering
  • Filaments
  • Flow
  • Hypervelocity Flow
  • Mass
  • Mass Flow
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Power Conditioning
  • Propellants
  • Propulsion Systems
  • Prototypes
  • Radiation
  • Specific Impulse
  • Thrust
  • Thrusters

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Electronics Engineering
  • Software Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster