Application of the Physics of Wave-Particle Interactions in the Auroral Upward Current Region for Use in the VASIMR° Deep Space Electric Propulsion System

This paper will describe the laboratory application of the lessons learned from the study of wave particle interactions in the auroral upward current region to the industrial development problem of electric spacecraft propulsion. The VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR°) has been developed by using the results of space plasma experiments in laboratory plasma studies that will ultimately enable further space exploration. VASIMR° is a high power electric spacecraft propulsion system, capable of Isp/thrust modulation at constant power. The VASIMR° uses a helicon discharge to generate plasma. The plasma is leaked though a strong magnetic mirror to the second stage. In this stage, this plasma is energized by an RF booster stage that uses left hand polarized slow mode waves launched from the high field side of the ion cyclotron resonance. In the experiments reported in this paper, the booster uses 0.5-0.7 MHz waves with up to 170 kW of power. The single pass ion cyclotron heating (ICH) produced a substantial increase in ion velocity. Pitch angle distribution studies showed that this increase took place in the resonance region where the ion cyclotron frequency was roughly equal to the frequency on the injected rf waves. Downstream of the resonance region the perpendicular velocity boost should be converted to axial flow velocity through the conservation of the first adiabatic invariant as the magnetic field decreases in the exhaust region of the VASIMR°. Results from high power Helicon only and Helicon with ICH experiments are presented from the VX-200 using argon propellant. A two-axis translation stage has been used to survey the spatial structure of plasma parameters, momentum flux and magnetic perturbations in the VX-200 exhaust plume. These recent measurements were made within a new 150 cubic meter cryo-pumped vacuum chamber and are presented in the context of plasma detachment. For the first time, the thruster efficiency and thrust of a high-power VASIMR° prototype have been measured with the thruster installed inside a vacuum chamber with sufficient volume and pumping to simulate the vacuum conditions of space. Using an ion flux probe array and a plasma momentum flux sensor (PMFS), the exhaust of the VX-200 engine was characterized as a function of the coupled RF power and as a function of the radial and axial position within the exhaust plume. The ionization cost of argon propellant was determined to be 87 eV for optimized values of RF power and propellant flow rate. Recent results at 200 kW coupled RF power have shown a thruster efficiency of 72% at a specific impulse of 5000 s and a thrust of 5.7 N.