Heavy Plasma NAPALM Propulsion Simulation Code

Heavy Plasma NAPALM Propulsion Simulation Code

Lörincz, I.
Rugescu, R.D.
Kohlenberg, J.
Prathaban, M.

Aerospace Engineering

Space Engineering

2010-12-04

The NAPALM project addresses a new and revolutionary space propulsion system, able to deliver a very high specific impulse through a new working fluid and accelerator principle for the electric plasma thruster. The new motor will impressively exceed, by between ten and sixty percent, the vacuum specific impulse of all existing electric and thermo-electric rocket engines. The accomplishment is based on a new working medium, comprised of relatively high-mass gasified nanoparticles that will be accelerated up to very high kinetic energies. While all current electric thrusters are only able to deliver up to 15.000s specific impulse, the new thruster is expected to deliver between 18.000 and over 30.000s specific impulse. This extraordinary property will increase in the equal amount the deliverable ideal velocity during an interplanetary mission. This increased exit velocity conveys into an equal amount of propellant saving, for any equivalent mission performance. Within the range of low thrust levels, a particularly efficient application of the new thruster is in the attitude control of orbital spacecraft, which will save large amounts of propellant, in comparison to the chemical attitude control units and to other existing electrical thrusters. Additionally, the NAPALM thruster will deliver an absolute thrust of more than 0.1 Newton for every mass flow rate of 1 milligram/second and thus an absolute vacuum thrust exceeding 18 Newton is expected.

plasma engine
electric propulsion
nano-materials

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6b1414ee-8e09-4c97-8d67-cc96af129ae7

International Research Alliance for Science and Technology

International Congress on Computer Applications and Computational Science, CACS 2010, Singapore, 4-6 December 2010

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2010 The Author(s)