Integration and testing of a high temperature superconductor magnet with a central cathode electrostatic thruster. Acheson, C. R., Głowacki, J., Nakano, R., Maeshima, D., Saile, D., Pavri, B., Mori, R., Takagi, R., Pollock, R., Olatunji, J. R., Goddard Winchester, M., Strickland, N., Ichihara, D., Wimbush, S. C., & Kinefuchi, K. In Proceedings of the Aerospace Europe Conference - EUCASS - CEAS, 2023.
Integration and testing of a high temperature superconductor magnet with a central cathode electrostatic thruster [pdf]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Superconductor magnets generate high magnetic fields which can increase the performance of electric propulsion devices, but many such thruster operational regimes remain unexplored. In this work, a superconductor magnet and electrostatic thruster were integrated on a thrust measurement stand. Thruster performance was characterised at applied fields of up to 0.8 T, representing a significant advance for applied-field plasma thrusters. Thermal behaviour of the cryogenic magnet was assessed. A convex anode enabled ignition at high magnetic fields, and in this configuration thruster performance was measured in the range of 1 kW to 2.5 kW and 0.6 T to 0.8 T.

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