Spacecraft electric propulsion#Types

The idea of electric propulsion for spacecraft was introduced in 1911 by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.{{cite web|last=Palaszewski|title=Electric Propulsion for Future Space Missions (PowerPoint)|first=Bryan|url=http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/DLN/descriptions/presentations/systemsengineering/SystemsEngPart1.ppt|format=PPT|work=Electric Propulsion for Future Space Missions|publisher=NASA Glenn Research Center|access-date=31 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123234239/http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/DLN/descriptions/presentations/systemsengineering/SystemsEngPart1.ppt|archive-date=November 23, 2021 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite journal |last=Choueiri |first=Edgar |date=2004-06-26 |title=A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First Fifty Years (1906-1956) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2004-3334 |journal=40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit |location=Reston, Virginia |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |doi=10.2514/6.2004-3334|isbn=978-1-62410-037-6 }} Earlier, Robert Goddard had noted such a possibility in his personal notebook.{{cite journal |last = Choueiri|first = Edgar Y.|year = 2004|title = A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First 50 Years (1906–1956)|journal = Journal of Propulsion and Power

|volume = 20|issue = 2|pages = 193–203|url = http://alfven.princeton.edu/publications/choueiri-jpp-2004|doi = 10.2514/1.9245 |citeseerx = 10.1.1.573.8519}}

On 15 May 1929, the Soviet research laboratory Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) commenced development of electric rocket engines. Headed by Valentin Glushko,{{cite book |last1=Siddiqi |first1=Asif |title=Challenge to Apollo : the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974 |date=2000 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Div. |page=6|location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf |access-date=11 June 2022}} in the early 1930s he created the world's first example of an electrothermal rocket engine.{{cite web |title=Gas Dynamic Laboratory (in Russian) |url=http://www.space.hobby.ru/organizations/gdl_okb.html |website=History of Russian Soviet Cosmonautics |access-date=10 June 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Chertok |first1=Boris |title=Rockets and People |date=31 January 2005 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |pages=164–165 |edition=Volume 1 |url=https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/rockets_people_vol1_detail.html |access-date=29 May 2022}} This early work by GDL has been steadily carried on and electric rocket engines were used in the 1960s on board the Voskhod 1 spacecraft and Zond-2 Mars probe.{{cite book |last1=Glushko |first1=Valentin |title=Developments of Rocketry and Space Technology in the USSR |date=1 January 1973 |publisher=Novosti Press Pub. House |pages=12–13 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Development-rocketry-space-technology-USSR/dp/B0006CHI4I}}

The first test of electric propulsion was an experimental ion engine carried on board the Soviet Zond 1 spacecraft in April 1964,{{cite web |title=Zond 1 |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-016D |website=NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive |publisher=NASA |access-date=28 February 2024}} however they operated erratically possibly due to problems with the probe.{{cite news |last1=LePage |first1=Andrew |title=…Try, try again |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2501/1 |access-date=28 February 2024 |publisher=The Space Review |date=28 April 2014}} The Zond 2 spacecraft also carried six Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPT) that served as actuators of the attitude control system. The PPT propulsion system was tested for 70 minutes on the 14 December 1964 when the spacecraft was 4.2 million kilometers from Earth.{{cite journal |last1=Shchepetilov |first1=V. A. |title=Development of Electrojet Engines at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy |journal=Physics of Atomic Nuclei |date=December 2018 |volume=81 |issue=7 |pages=988–999 |doi=10.1134/S1063778818070104 |bibcode=2018PAN....81..988S |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PAN....81..988S/abstract |access-date=28 February 2024}}

The first successful demonstration of an ion engine was NASA SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) spacecraft.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/history/ds1.html|title=Glenn Contributions to Deep Space 1|first=NASA Content|last=Administrator|date=14 April 2015|website=NASA}}{{cite web |first1=Ronald J.|last1=Cybulski |first2=Daniel M.|last2=Shellhammer |first3=Robert R.|last3=Lovell |first4=Edward J.|last4=Domino |first5=Joseph T.|last5=Kotnik |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19650009681/downloads/19650009681.pdf |title=Results from SERT I Ion Rocket Flight Test| id=NASA-TN-D-2718 |publisher=NASA |date=1965}} It launched on 20 July 1964 and operated for 31 minutes. A follow-up mission launched on 3 February 1970, SERT-2. It carried two ion thrusters, one operated for more than five months and the other for almost three months.NASA Glenn, [http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/ion/past/70s/sert2.htm "SPACE ELECTRIC ROCKET TEST II (SERT II)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927004353/http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/ion/past/70s/sert2.htm |date=27 September 2011 }} (Accessed 1 July 2010)[http://www.astronautix.com/craft/sert.htm SERT] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101025005136/http://www.astronautix.com/craft/sert.htm |date=25 October 2010 }} page at Astronautix (Accessed 1 July 2010)

Electrically powered propulsion with a nuclear reactor was considered by Tony Martin for interstellar Project Daedalus in 1973, but the approach was rejected because of its thrust profile, the weight of equipment needed to convert nuclear energy into electricity, and as a result a small acceleration, which would take a century to achieve the desired speed.{{Cite web|url=http://daedalus-zvezdolet.narod.ru/doceng/07eng.doc|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628001133/http://daedalus-zvezdolet.narod.ru/doceng/07eng.doc|url-status=dead|title=PROJECT DAEDALUS: THE PROPULSION SYSTEM Part 1; Theoretical considerations and calculations. 2. REVIEW OF ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS|archivedate=28 June 2013}}

By the early 2010s, many satellite manufacturers were offering electric propulsion options on their satellites—mostly for on-orbit attitude control—while some commercial communication satellite operators were beginning to use them for geosynchronous orbit insertion in place of traditional chemical rocket engines.

{{cite news |last1=de Selding|first1=Peter B. |title=Electric-propulsion Satellites Are All the Rage |url=http://spacenews.com/35894electric-propulsion-satellites-are-all-the-rage/ |access-date=6 February 2015 |work=SpaceNews |date=20 June 2013 }}

These types of rocket-like reaction engines use electric energy to obtain thrust from propellant.{{Cite web |last=DeFelice |first=David |date=2015-08-18 |title=Ion Propulsion |url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=NASA |language=en}}

Electric propulsion thrusters for spacecraft may be grouped into three families based on the type of force used to accelerate the ions of the plasma:

{{Main|Ion thruster}}

If the acceleration is caused mainly by the Coulomb force (i.e. application of a static electric field in the direction of the acceleration) the device is considered electrostatic. Types:

• Gridded ion thruster
• NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR)
• HiPEP
• Radiofrequency ion thruster
• Hall-effect thruster, including its subtypes Stationary Plasma Thruster (SPT) and Thruster with Anode Layer (TAL)
• Colloid ion thruster
• Field-emission electric propulsion
• Nano-particle field extraction thruster

The electrothermal category groups devices that use electromagnetic fields to generate a plasma to increase the temperature of the bulk propellant. The thermal energy imparted to the propellant gas is then converted into kinetic energy by a nozzle of either solid material or magnetic fields. Low molecular weight gases (e.g. hydrogen, helium, ammonia) are preferred propellants for this kind of system.

An electrothermal engine uses a nozzle to convert heat into linear motion, so it is a true rocket even though the energy producing the heat comes from an external source.

Performance of electrothermal systems in terms of specific impulse (Isp) is 500 to ~1000 seconds, but exceeds that of cold gas thrusters, monopropellant rockets, and even most bipropellant rockets. In the USSR, electrothermal engines entered use in 1971; the Soviet "Meteor-3", "Meteor-Priroda", "Resurs-O" satellite series and the Russian "Elektro" satellite are equipped with them.{{cite web|url=http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/198/35.shtml|title=Native Electric Propulsion Engines Today|publisher=Novosti Kosmonavtiki|year=1999|issue=7|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606033558/http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/198/35.shtml|archive-date=6 June 2011|language=ru}} Electrothermal systems by Aerojet (MR-510) are currently used on Lockheed Martin A2100 satellites using hydrazine as a propellant.

• Resistojet
• Arcjet
• Microwave
• Variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR)

{{Main|Plasma propulsion engine}}

File:Plasma propulsion engine.webp fusion plasma thruster]]

Electromagnetic thrusters accelerate ions either by the Lorentz force or by the effect of electromagnetic fields where the electric field is not in the direction of the acceleration. Types:

• Electrodeless plasma thruster
• Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
• Pulsed inductive thruster
• Pulsed plasma thruster
• Helicon Double Layer Thruster
• Magnetic field oscillating amplified thruster

{{See also|Laser propulsion|Photon rocket}}

A photonic drive interacts only with photons.

{{Main|Electrodynamic tether}}

Electrodynamic tethers are long conducting wires, such as one deployed from a tether satellite, which can operate on electromagnetic principles as generators, by converting their kinetic energy to electric energy, or as motors, converting electric energy to kinetic energy.NASA, [https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980018321_1998056794.pdf Tethers In Space Handbook], edited by M.L. Cosmo and E.C. Lorenzini, Third Edition December 1997 (accessed 20 October 2010); see also version at [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/pdf/337451main_Tethers_In_Space_Handbook_Section_1_2.pdf NASA MSFC];

available on [https://www.scribd.com/doc/13841374/Tethers-in-Space-Handbook-3rd-Ed scribd] Electric potential is generated across a conductive tether by its motion through the Earth's magnetic field. The choice of the metal conductor to be used in an electrodynamic tether is determined by factors such as electrical conductivity, and density. Secondary factors, depending on the application, include cost, strength, and melting point.

Some proposed propulsion methods apparently violate currently-understood laws of physics, including:{{cite web|url=http://johncostella.webs.com/shawyerfraud.pdf|title=Why Shawyer's 'electromagnetic relativity drive' is a fraud|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825153059/http://johncostella.webs.com/shawyerfraud.pdf|archive-date=25 August 2014}}

• Quantum Vacuum Thruster
• EM Drive or Cannae Drive

Electric propulsion systems can be characterized as either steady (continuous firing for a prescribed duration) or unsteady (pulsed firings accumulating to a desired impulse). These classifications can be applied to all types of propulsion engines.

{{Further|Reaction engine#Energy use}}

Electrically powered rocket engines provide lower thrust compared to chemical rockets by several orders of magnitude because of the limited electrical power available in a spacecraft. A chemical rocket imparts energy to the combustion products directly, whereas an electrical system requires several steps. However, the high velocity and lower reaction mass expended for the same thrust allows electric rockets to run on less fuel. This differs from the typical chemical-powered spacecraft, where the engines require more fuel, requiring the spacecraft to mostly follow an inertial trajectory. When near a planet, low-thrust propulsion may not offset the gravitational force. An electric rocket engine cannot provide enough thrust to lift the vehicle from a planet's surface, but a low thrust applied for a long interval can allow a spacecraft to manoeuvre near a planet.

• Magnetic sail, a proposed system powered by solar wind from the Sun or any star
• List of spacecraft with electric propulsion, a list of past and proposed spacecraft which used electric propulsion
• Biefeld–Brown effect

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130405063810/http://ep.jpl.nasa.gov/ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
• The technological and commercial expansion of electric propulsion - D. Lev et al. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576518319672 The technological and commercial expansion of electric propulsion]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150120000123/http://eo.ucar.edu/staff/dward/sao/fit/electric.htm Electric (Ion) Propulsion], University Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2000.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071009153443/http://www.pwrengineering.com/dataresources/Lazarovici_paper.pdf Distributed Power Architecture for Electric Propulsion]
• [http://alfven.princeton.edu/publications/choueiri-sciam-2009 Choueiri, Edgar Y. (2009). New dawn of electric rocket]
• [http://alfven.princeton.edu/publications/ep-encyclopedia-2001 Robert G. Jahn and Edgar Y. Choueiri. Electric Propulsion]
• [http://www.engr.colostate.edu/ionstand/ Colorado State University Electric Propulsion and Plasma Engineering (CEPPE) Laboratory]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180218231150/http://www.fakel-russia.com/images/content/products/fakel_spd_en_print.pdf Stationary plasma thrusters](PDF)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090530080218/http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/electricprop.html electric space propulsion]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071209160645/http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/llis/0736.html Public Lessons Learned Entry: 0736]
• [http://mae.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/ChoueiriHistJPC04.pdf A Critical History of Electric Propulsion：The First Fifty Years (1906–1956) - AIAA-2004-3334]
• Aerospace America, AIAA publication, December 2005, Propulsion and Energy section, pp. 54–55, written by Mitchell Walker.

{{Spacecraft propulsion}}

Category:Russian inventions

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Category:Spacecraft propulsion

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