Physics Impacts to Plasma Wave Thruster Design
Physics Impacts to Plasma Wave Thruster Design
The allure of electrodeless, rf based thrusters is fairly obvious in the abstract: long life due to no electrode sputtering, multi-propellant operation (in some cases), higher plasma density. Examples include capacitive, inductive, and wave-based thrusters. Generally, the fundamental application of these concepts is an rf heated plasma, expanded through a divergent magnetic nozzle. When a... Read more