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US 12,601,330 B1Granted
Targeted-current-density hall thruster
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsBenjamin Jorns, Eric Viges, Madison Allen, Thomas Marks, Christopher Sercel, William Hurley, Parker Roberts, Leanne Su, Tate Gill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thruster includes a current loop, a magnetic circuit within the current loop, a channel, a propellant reservoir and an ejection outlet. The channel forms an ejection path from an output of the propellant reservoir to the ejection outlet. The current loop is driven by a tuned current density based on at least a selected propellant. The selected propellant is ejected down the channel due to an applied electric field.
Claims20
A thruster including:
- an ejection outlet;
- a material reservoir configured to hold multiple propellant alternatives;
- a channel forming an ejection path from an output of the material reservoir to the ejection outlet;
- a current loop through the channel along the ejection path;
- current and voltage tuning circuitry configured to drive the current loop through the channel at a tuned current density based on at least a selected one of the multiple propellant alternatives to place the tuned current density within a predefined range associated with the selected one of the multiple propellant alternatives;
- and
- a processor configured to cause the current tuning circuitry configured to place the tuned current density within a predefined range associated with the selected one of the multiple propellant alternatives;
- and
- a magnetic circuit.
6 more elements
A thruster including:
- an ejection outlet;
- a magnetic circuit;
- a material reservoir configured to hold at least a selected propellant of multiple propellant alternatives;
- a channel forming an ejection path from an output of the material reservoir to the ejection outlet;
- a current loop along the ejection path;
- and
- current tuning circuitry configured to drive the current loop at a tuned current density based on at least an ionization cross-section of the selected propellant;
- and
- a processor configured to cause the current tuning circuitry to tune the current density based on at least an ionization cross-section of the selected propellant.
6 more elements
A method including:
- obtaining, from a material reservoir configured to hold at least a selected propellant of multiple propellant alternatives, the selected propellant of the multiple propellant alternatives;
- driving a current loop at a tuned current density based on at least a selected propellant of the multiple propellant alternatives to place the tuned current density within a predefined range associated with the selected propellant of the multiple propellant alternatives;
- and
- ejecting, using an electric field generated via the current loop and a magnetic field from a magnetic circuit, the selected propellant of the multiple propellant alternatives down a channel forming an ejection path from an output of a propellant reservoir to an ejection outlet.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.