3 ms·
Doing the math on this 5.4 netwons in 108 kilowatts would give you a maximum exhaust velocity of 38 km/s which is in line with what you expect from a Hall effec
by Symmetry 9y ago
Doing the math on this 5.4 netwons in 108 kilowatts would give you a maximum exhaust velocity of 38 km/s which is in line with what you expect from a Hall effect thruster. You can get much higher exhaust velocities (and thus more fuel efficient engines) from gridded ion engine but that requires more power for a given thrust and the wear on the grid is a concern.
I'm not really sure why it's important that we have big hall thrusters, though? My impression was that you could just keep adding more of these to a spacecraft if you needed to.
- sp332 9y agoIt seems like the bigger ones are more efficient. Looking at the design I think they nested several hall effect thrusters which could improve focus or something. Edit: http://pepl.engin.umich.edu/projects/NCHETs.html http://pepl.engin.umich.edu/projects/NCHETs.html
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- matthew349hall 9y agoWhy not have a nuclear battery/generator powering an array of ion thrusters?
- btilly 9y agoThis is a tradeoff that I don't think is widely enough understood. The faster the rocket's exhaust goes the less fuel and more energy you need to reach a given speed. This only makes sense if you have access to a lot of energy, and are concerned with conserving fuel.