Ion Drive Propulsion: An Overview

Ion Drive Propulsion An OverviewTANG,YOUHENGIon Drive actuation, also called ion engine, which is a technical schoolnology that involves gas ionization and bunghole be use instead of standard chemics. Give an electric charge or ionize the gas xenon, which is equal neon or helium, but heavier, the ionized gas tolerate be galvanizingly speed up a speed of ab start 30km/s by the electric field force. When xenon ions are emitted at such advanced speed as exhaust from a spaceship, the spacecraft can be pushed in the opposite direction.The ion engine was start-offly demonstrated by Emst Stuhliger, the German-born NASA scientist. so at NASA Lewis Research Center (now called Glenn research center) from 1957 to the early 1960s integrated data processing was develop in form by Harold R.Kaufman. Moreover, the ion drive propulsion was first demonstrated in space in Space Electric sky uprise Test (SERT) I and II by NASA Lewis Research Center. The SERT-1, which is the first establish was launched in July 20, 1964, proved the technology operated as predicted in space successfully. Furthermore, the abet test SERT-II, which was launched on February 3rd 1970, verified the thousands of running hours operation of cardinal mercury ion drive propulsions, though IDP were seldom use beforehand the late 1990s.Electric propulsion controls by utilize electrical energy to accelerate a propellant to much naughtyer velocities than is affirmable using chemical reactions. The most common propellant use in ion engines is xenon. Early ion engines used mercury and cesium, but they proved hard to work with. At room temperature, mercury is liquid and cesium is solid they both(prenominal) must be heated to turn them into gases. Also, as mercury or cesium exhaust cooled, m all of their atoms would condense on the exterior of the spacecraft, muddied solar cells and instruments. Eventually researchers turned to xenon as a cleaner, innocentr go off for ion engines. (De Felice, 1999).For IDPs operation arrangement, it uses an electric field to accelerate charged atoms or molecules to a high velocity. Ion stuffers generally use a cathode to grant a stream of electrons, which form an electric circuit with a positively charged ring the anode. A small magnetic field is used to aid this process (electrons spiral around the magnetic field lines, change magnitude the chance of electron-atom collisions). The ionized gas is accelerated break through of the thruster and drifts towards an lineage grid system, so it can engender thrust. A neutraliser similar to the cathode is used to generate free electrons and balance the overall space charge of the outgoing beam so that the spacecraft does not charge itself up. To deal with this hassle NASAs Deep Space 1 probe is testing a new-fashioned type of ion thruster. The following description of DS-1s ion thrusters is from the official DS-1 WebsiteIts ion propulsion system (IPS) utilizes a hollow cathode to produ ce electrons, used to ionize xenon. The Xe+ is electrostatically accelerated through a potential of up to 1280 V and emitted from the 30-cm thruster through a molybdenum grid. A separate electron beam is emitted to produce a neutral plasma beam. The indicant-processing unit (PPU) of the IPS can accept as much as 2.5 kW, corresponding to a peak thruster in operation(p) power of 2.3 kW and a thrust of 92 m N. bound is achieved by balancing thruster and Xe feed system parameters at lower power levels, and at the lowest thruster power, 500 W, the thrust is 20 m N. The specific impulse decreases from 3100 s at high power to 1900 s at the minimum throttle level. (De Felice, 1999)Mostly, IDP is macrocosm used in aerospace application. Here are a couple of simple examples.Deep Space 1 which is a spacecraft of the NASA New millennium Program dedicated to testing a payload of advanced, high risk of exposure technologies.Also it is the first spacecraft which used ion drive propulsion.Ha yabusa which is an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sampling of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further abbreviation and used xenon ion enginesDawm which is a space probe launched by NASA on September 27, 2007, to study the two most massive objects of the asteroid brawlthe protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. It is the first NASA exploratory mission to use ion propulsion to enter orbits.There are three advantages of Ion Drive Propulsion which can probably explain why IDP is being used. First, it uses much less(prenominal) propellant than chemical risery so it may promise better reliability and simplicity than chemical rocketry or, from an another(prenominal) perspective, it gets much more mileage out of a divulgen quantity of propellant. Third, it could use 100% lunar or asteroid derived propellant. IDP can push a spacecraft up to about ten times as fast as chemical pro pulsion comparing IDP with chemical propulsion under the plenty which ion propulsion is appropriate for. To sum up, the ion propulsion systems efficient use of electrical power and burn enables modern spacecraft to travel farther, and it is cheaper than any other propulsion technology currently operable. Ion drive propulsion is currently used for main propulsion on deep space probes and for station holding on communication satellites. Ion thrusters expel ions to create thrust and can win higher spacecraft top speeds than any other rocket which is available currently.In addition, the top speed of ion drive propulsion is startling. By using the principle of relativity, a physical situation could be analyzed from any reference frame as long as it moves with some continual speed relative to a known inertial frame.As a function of the proper time experienced on the rocket, the acceleration of the rocket is a (),in Newtonian mechanics there is a quantity which increases the elan v elocity called the rapidity of the rocket .The rapidity go out be ()= 0 a()dThe velocity is then v()=tanh .If a=g ,v()=tanh(g)So if one grade has passed on the rocket, the time on Earth allow for be tanh(1.05)=0.78C which style 78% of light.Since the limit of tanh is one as , so the velocity of rocket will never get light speed.A more substantial limiting factor is the dismiss. Fusion isnt a way around this because of E=mc2 there is a limited energy can be calculate from a given mass of fuel.If a element (f) of the rocket is fuel, if all the fuel are burned, the momentum of the rocket will be m(1f), with m the authorized mass. The conservation of momentum and energy givem=m(1f)+E fuel0=m(1f)+p fuel=p fuel mE fuelAccording the formulas and prove shows that the fuel and rocket go opposite directions. To maximize , make p fuel as large as possible and subject to a fixed E fuel so assume the fuel is massless with fuel =1p fuel =E fuel .=1(1f) 2 1+(1f) 2 To sum up, even the fu el has 50% of the rockets original mass it just can get 3/5C.Researching in the field of honor of ion propulsion is pushing the envelope of propulsion technology. To achieve higher power levels and speeds, longer durations advancements are being made. As new power sources experience available, higher power thrusters will be developed that provide greater speed and more thrust. Nowadays, PPU and PMS technologies are being developed that will allow NASA to build lighter and more compact systems while change magnitude reliability. These technologies will allow humankind to explore the farthest reaches of our solar system also it will allow humankind to explore the farthest reaches which is out of our solar system.Work Cited ListNASANew Millennium Program http//nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/ionpropfaq.htmlLucian Dorneanu How Does Ion Drive Propulsion Work? May 10th, 2007, 2106 GMT http// intelligence information.softpedia.com/news/How-Does-Ion-Drive-Propulsion-Work-54439.shtmlPermanent. com Electric Propulsion for Inter-Orbital Vehicleshttp//www.permanent.com/space-transportation-electric.htmlDennis WardElectric(Ion)Propulsionhttp//eo.ucar.edu/staff/dward/sao/fit/electric.htm