Investigation of the thrust efficiency in MPD thrusters

What is it about?

We show how thrust efficiency scales in applied-MPD thrusters. We show that the efficiency grows with increasing applied magnetic field. We explore the ways this trend scales with different thrust current and mass flow rate values. We also break down the thrust into three components - gas-dynamic, self-field and applied field components. We show the role that each component plays, at different thruster operation regimes, and its influence on the thrust efficiency.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

We lay out, for the first time, scaling laws for applied field MPD thruster efficiency. We identify sources for inefficiency, that can be separately treated in the future. We show results taken with a Lithium applied field MPD thruster - the only such thruster in the world.