Charge Exchange Containment Cell

Ryan Bosworth,

Doug Claes,

Michael Johnson,

and Trey Quiller

The Exploration and Space Technology (EaST) LabDr. Andrew Ketsdever

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• Motivation• Charge Exchange Process• Charge Exchange Cell– Design Stage– Overview of completed system

• Results

Introduction

• Electronic Propulsion has high mass due to power systems

• $10,000 per pound of payload to LEO using the Atlas and Delta launch systems

• New propulsion called Electrode-less Lorentz Force Thruster or ELF Thruster

Motivation

Charge Exchange

• Creating fast neutral particles to eject from the system• Mainly momentum transfer between particles• No kinetic energy lost• Minimal deviation from trajectory

Neutral Charge Exchange Gas

Ion Beam

Fast Neutrals

Remaining Ions

Vacuum

Designing the Device

• Main goals of design:– Contain a neutral gas in a vacuum environment– Vary neutral gas pressure– Constant neutral gas number density– Easy to machine device

• Went through an extensive design process

Building of Device

Experimental Testing

• Tested our best predicted configuration for best containment

• 200 milli-torr MKS differential pressure transducer

• Flow rates of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 40, and 50 sccm

• Record chamber pressure, differential reading, and flow rates

Results

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 550

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Differential Pressure for Argon

Flowrate(sccm)

CE

GC

Pre

ssu

re (

mT

orr

)

Thank you for your time.