Throughout most of the twentieth century, electric propulsion was considered the technology of the future. Now, the future has arrived. This important new book explains the fundamentals of electric propulsion for spacecraft and describes in detail the physics and characteristics of the two major electric thrusters in use today, ion and Hall thrusters. The authors provide an introduction to plasma physics in order to allow readers to understand the models and derivations used in determining electric thruster performance. They then go on to present detailed explanations of: Thruster principles Ion thruster plasma generators and accelerator grids Hollow cathodes Hall thrusters Ion and Hall thruster plumes Flight ion and Hall thrusters Based largely on research and development performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and complemented with scores of tables, figures, homework problems, and references, Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters is an indispensable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing to enter the aerospace industry. It also serves as an equally valuable resource for professional engineers already at work in the field.

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Master's Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Engineering - Aerospace Technology, grade: 3,4, , language: English, abstract: Space electric propulsion is required not only for orbit raising and transfer, position control, and station keeping, but also for spacecraft attitude control, advanced thermal material testing, and end-of-life de-orbiting that is much more fuel efficient than conventional chemical rockets. FEEP thruster is one type of ion propulsion system that provides a low thrust of the order of micro-Newton (μN) to milli-Newton (mN) that is primarily used for precise spacecraft attitude control with extremely high efficiency and small impulse bits based on the exhaust velocity of an ejected ion from a thruster. This thesis report includes a mathematical and 3D CAD model of a FEEP thruster with the overarching goal of investigating and analyzing the thruster’s parametric performance. To accomplish this, a MATLAB program was used to simulate the change in thrust and exhaust velocity over time using various types of liquid metal as a propellant, assuming the fuel mass is equal to the atomic mass of the propellant, the wet mass of the spacecraft is assumed to be 4kg, and the charge of an ion is assumed to be 1.602 × 10−19 while the supplied voltage is held constant at 10 kV. Furthermore, because the porous crown emitter is the heart of the FEEP thruster, its stiffness and topology optimization were investigated. The simulation results show that the thrust value of the FEEP thruster over time ranges from 0.213μN to 211mN during stable ion flow rate and mass expulsion of indium propellant, implying that the result is comparable to realistic FEEP parameters. Furthermore, as expected, increasing the voltage between the emitter and extractor electrodes and decreasing the mass expulsion of the propellant increased the thrust value of the FEEP thruster.