A P-24 Plasma Physics Summer School rocket science seminar
Wednesday, 8 August 2007, 12:00-1:00 pm, TA-35, Plasma Physics P-24, bldg 86, room 205
Everybody is welcomed; Refreshments and food served


Title:Fundamentals and Applications of Plasma Thrusters for Space Missions

Speaker: Yevgeny Raitses
Affiliation: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08543

Plasma thruster is an electric rocket engine that produces and accelerates plasma to velocities of tens of 
kilometers per second, making it a propulsion option that is well suited for deep-space missions as well as
Earth-orbiting applications. The main advantage offered by plasma thrusters over conventional chemical rockets
is the significant fuel mass savings due to a larger exhaust velocity. There are currently over 150 spacecraft
in orbit employing plasma thrusters. I will present basic principles for different types of plasma thrusters, 
including electrothermal, electrostatics and electromagnetic thrusters. For each thruster type, I will discuss
how the momentum is transferred from the accelerated plasma flow to the thruster body. An emphasis will also be
placed upon the Hall thruster (HT). This electromagnetic propulsion device competes with the most mature 
conventional ion engines for many near-future space missions. For the same thrust, the HT can be more compact
and light-weight because its thrust density is not space-charge limited as it is in the ion engines. There are,
however, other limitations and scientific challenges for HT, which have yet to be overcome.

Contact: Tom Intrator, intrator@lanl.gov, 
website:http://wsx.lanl.gov