Power supply system for arcjet thrusters

An arcjet/power supply arrangement, comprising:

• a source of direct voltage;
• an arcjet including an electrical input port requiring a known power;
• a plurality of power converters coupled to said source of direct voltage for being energized thereby, each of said power converters including an output port at which a smoothed direct current is produced at a predetermined power less than said known power, each of said power converters also including (a) bridge switching means for converting said direct voltage to an alternating voltage, (b) transformer means including a primary winding coupled to said switching means and also including a secondary winding, for transforming said alternating voltage for providing isolation and impedance transformation between said source of direct voltage and said output port, (c) a resonant circuit coupled to at least one of said primary and secondary windings for creating a sinusoidal alternating current from said alternating voltage, (d) rectifying means coupled for receiving said alternating current, for rectifying said alternating current for producing direct current, and (e) inductance means coupled to said rectifying means for smoothing said direct current to produce said smoothed directed current at said output port, said plurality of power converters being greater, by an integer number, than the quotient of said known power divided by said predetermined power;
• and
• paralleling and coupling means coupled to said output port of each of said power converters and to said electrical input port of said arcjet, for combining said smoothed direct currents from said plurality of power converters for application to said electrical input port of said arcjet.