Analysis of Air Breathing Hall Effect Thruster

Abstract

The principle idea of using air breathing electric propulsion for a vehicle flying at orbital speed on the edge of Earth's atmosphere is examined. In this paper, we present a simple model of a Hall Effect thruster in which the propellant is ambient air. The required lengths of the thruster chamber, the magnetic fields, the thrust, and other parameters of an ideal air breathing Hall Effect thruster are calculated as a function of the flying altitude of the vehicle. We demonstrate that an air breathing Hall thruster is indeed capable of providing the needed thrust for near space satellites for the altitudes of 80 - 110 km.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA546855

Entities

People

  • L. Pekker
  • Michael Keidar

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Breathing
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Altitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Electric Propulsion
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Electron Emission
  • Electrons
  • Equations
  • Hall Effect
  • Hall Thrusters
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Plasma Jets
  • Satellite Orbits
  • Spacecraft
  • Thrust
  • Thrusters

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Satellites