Micropropulsion in space via dust-plasma thruster

K. Avinash and G. P. Zank Citation: Phys. Plasmas 14, 053507 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2722266 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2722266 View Table of Contents: http://pop.aip.org/resource/1/PHPAEN/v14/i5 Published by the AIP Publishing LLC.

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PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 14, 053507 2007

Micropropulsion in space via dust-plasma thruster

K. Avinasha and G. P. Zank
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), University of California, Riverside, California 92521

Received 12 February 2007; accepted 13 March 2007; published online 29 May 2007 A new engine for propulsion in space, i.e., the dust-plasma thruster, is proposed. The scheme uses plasma thermal energy to charge externally injected sub-micrometer-sized particles and simultaneously create electric elds in the plasma that accelerates them. Particles are subsequently charge stripped and exhausted to produce electrically neutral thrust obviating the need of a charge neutralizer. For reasonable plasma and particle parameters, thrust and specic impulse over a broad range may be produced. The dependence of thrust on particle size, number of injected particles, and plasma temperature density allows for a better thruster precision. The scheme is shown to have modest power requirements. It may be realized in a simple design where there are no high voltage grids or electrodes, charge neutralizer, valves, pressurized gases, etc., and can operate in space or vacuum. A layout for the possible conguration is described. 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2722266
I. INTRODUCTION

Electric propulsion is an efcient method of generating thrust for propelling rockets and other space vehicles. All devices based on this method take advantage of the favorable charge-to-mass ratio of ions to accelerate them to very high velocities, usually in a plasma environment. The acceleration is achieved either by externally applied potential, as in ion engines,1 Hall plasma thrusters,25 pulsed plasma thrusters,6 and other similar devices, or by self-consistent plasma elds as in helicon double-layer thrusters.7 Typically, these devices achieve exhaust velocities ranging from a few km/s to a few hundred km/s and an average thrust ranging from 100 mN to about 1 N. Many types of electric propulsion devices are currently being developed. Some of these have been successfully deployed, e.g., NASA has deployed and tested ion engine NSTAR on space probe Deep Space 1. Recently, there has been an emerging need of micropropulsion for civilian as well as military space missions. For instance, future nanosatellites 100 kg will have activities such as precision targeting, orbit correction and ying in space, deep space exploration, formation ying of multiple satellite missions, satellites servicing, etc. These spacecraft will require microthrusting devices capable of delivering small force 10 N and small impulse bits for highprecision position and altitude control. Similarly, space missions such as the Space Technology 7 Disturbance Reduction System ST7-DRS to be launched in 20082009, and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna LISA to be launched in the next decade,8 require a drag-free, low-noise position control with high precision. This requires microthrusters with thrust 5 30 N and a thrust resolution 0.1 N. Furthermore, these devices will need to function with limited power resources 100 W and weight budgets. Apart from this, microthrusters with less demanding position accuracy and precision, with thrust in the range 10100 N, are required
a

Permanent address: Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 7, India.

simply to make up for the drag due to solar photon pressure, solar wind disturbance, etc., on the spacecraft. Two technologies that are capable of satisfying some of these requirements and are in advanced stages of development are the Colloid Micro Newton Thruster CMNT and the Field Emission Electric Propulsion FEEP thruster. Colloid thruster technology is based on the electrostatic acceleration of small nanosized 10100 nM droplets that are generated by feeding a conducting uid through a small capillary and applying large acceleration voltage 5000 V. A charge-neutralizing beam is required to neutralize the charge of the exhausted droplets. Colloid thrusters that deliver 20 N with 0.1 N adjustability and low thrust noise have been developed by Busek Co. in the United States.8 The space market for such devices could reach several tens of millions of dollars over the next decade. However, in this scheme it is difcult to control the spread in the size distribution of the droplets, which adversely affects the controllability of the thrust. Apart from this, simple design and fabrication, the need for high-voltage addressing, thruster operability with long lifetimes 55 000 h, acceptable limits of corrosion, instability, and emission of jets from the Taylor cones, etc., are still outstanding issues. In this paper, we propose a new method of propulsion in space which is based on converting plasma thermal energy into mechanical work via electrostatic pressure. This is achieved by charging externally injected sub-micron-sized solid particles by thermal uxes in a warm electron-ion plasma and then accelerating them in self-consistently generated plasma elds and/or external elds to achieve the thrust. It has been recently demonstrated that charging of micrometer- and sub-micrometer-sized particles in warm plasma is an efcient process.9 Experiments have shown that a negative charge as large as 104 times the electronic charge q can be accumulated on a 0.11 m sized particles in a warm electronion plasma.1012 The charge-to-mass ratio of these particles is thus comparable to that of charged droplets in colloid thrusters.8 Concomitant with the charge buildup,
2007 American Institute of Physics

1070-664X/2007/145/053507/5/$23.00

14, 053507-1

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the plasma also develops a large negative potential T / q T is plasma temperature locally. Negatively charged particles are accelerated in this negative potential. Since the charging time scale is typically very short a few hundred s, the acceleration is expected to be in the form of a microdetonation/explosion. Once the particles are accelerated, they need not retain the charge. It can be stripped by passing particles through cold plasma just before the exhaust. The particle exhaust plasma need not be exhausted is thus charge-neutral, obviating the need for a separate charge neutralizer. This type of thruster is expected to have several advantages, chief among them being its simplicity of design. There are no high-voltage electrodes/grids or a charge neutralizer. Particles are accelerated in self-consistently generated plasma elds and charges stripped before the exhaust. Since particles initially are electrically neutral, they can be easily injected in the plasma. The thrust and the specic impulse scale with the particle size. Hence these parameters can be ne-tuned by choosing the appropriate particle size. There are no constraints related to operating in vacuum with low vapor pressure uids; it involves low-density plasma and particles, hence it can operate in space/vacuum. The operation is expected to be robustly stable as there are no moving parts, valves, or pressurized gases. The only plasma-facing component is the robust plasma vessel, hence the corrosion effects are expected to be within limits. Smirnov et al. have also proposed injection of negatively charged dust particles to maximize the ion current in ion thrusters.13 Liu et al. from Michigan University have recently proposed the concept of nanoFET.14 In this scheme, nanoparticles are charged in a conducting uid. These are then extracted from the uid surface and accelerated with electric elds to produce the thrust. In the end, we will compare our scheme with this scheme.
II. CONCEPT OF DUST-PLASMA THRUSTER

surface potential of particles. It is related to the particle charge Q as Q = a. The temporal evolution of Q is governed by the equation

Q = Ii + Ie . t

The equilibrium Q and are given by the condition Ii + Ie = 0. Due to the lighter mass of the electrons, and Q is negative and is given by

e , mi/me1/2 = 1 +

In this section, we describe the concept of dust-plasma thruster in some detail. In this thrusting scheme, neutral uncharged sub-micrometer-sized particles are injected in warm quasineutral electron-ion plasma. Let the initial volume, in which particles are injected, be Vi while the plasma volume is V, where Vi V. Once particles are injected in the plasma, the nal thrust is generated in four stages. These are a particle charge buildup, b potential buildup, c acceleration/detonation, and d charge stripping and exhaust. A brief description of these stages is as follows: (a) Charge buildup: Neutral particles within warm plasma get charged due to thermal currents of ions and electrons. For the spherical shape of the particles, these charging currents are given by9 Ii = qa28T/mi1/2ni1 q/T for ions, Ie = qa28T/me1/2neeq/T for electrons, 1 2

where = q / T, Te = Ti = T, and we have taken ion density approximately equal to the electron density. For a xenon ion, which is approximately 131 times heavier than a proton, we 4.5. The particle charge Q / q = aT / q2 scales diobtain rectly with particle radius and plasma temperature T. For a sub-micrometer-size particle with diameter d = 0.1 m and a moderately warm plasma with T = 50 eV, Q 104q. The charge-to-mass ratio of these particles is about 104 C / kg, which is comparable to that of droplets in colloid thrusters. However, the important difference in this case is the ease with which charging and subsequent acceleration, as we shall see shortly is accomplished. Neutral particles can be injected easily in the plasma, and once they are injected, they get rapidly charged on a time scale Q / 2Ii. For plasma density in the range 10101011 cm3and T = 50 eV, ranges from 50 to 500 s. (b) Potential buildup: Concomitant with the charge buildup, the plasma also develops a negative potential i locally in the region Vi containing particles to maintain quasineutrality. If N particles are injected initially in a volume Vi, then the quasineutrality in the initial volume demands Qn pi = qni ne, where n pi is the particle density and the negative sign of Q is taken into account. In a warm plasma, electron and ion densities are given by Boltzmann relations ni = n0 expqi / T, ne = n0 expqi / T, where i is the local plasma potential in Vi. Away from Vi, there no particles, i.e., n pi = 0, hence i = 0 and ni = ne = n0. For Qn pi 0, quasineutrality requires i 0. For small particle density n pi / n0 1, qi / T 1, hence the exponentials in ion and electron densities can be linearized to give the magnitude of i by the relation

1 Z iN T/qeV V, 2 V in 0

where a is the particles radius, me mi is the electron ion mass, ne ni is the electron ion density, and is the

where Z = Q / q and we have approximated n pi by the average particle density N / Vi. Thus along with charge buildup, negatively charged particles also dig a negative potential locally within Vi. The magnitude of the peak potential in the well is given by 5. For Zi 104, n pi / n0 104, and we obtain i peak T / q. This potential also builds up rapidly on the charge buildup time scale . (c) Acceleration: As stated above, once particles are injected in Vi, the particle charge and potential are established rapidly on a time scale . Since i is zero elsewhere, an electric eld is set up pointing toward Vi, and an electrostatic force F on particles is set up pointing away from Vi. It has been shown recently15 that F is proportional to n pi and

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Micropropulsion in space via dust-plasma thruster

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hence has the nature of an effective pressure gradient force. This effective pressure due to shielded elds is called electrostatic pressure PE and is given by PE n0Tqi / T2. Thus, as uncharged neutral particles are injected in the plasma, an effective pressure PE acting on particles builds up rapidly. As usually happens in cases of explosives, this rapid buildup of pressure PE will cause an explosive expansion of particles in Vi. This could have the nature of a small detonation if particles move supersonically or agration if they move subsonically. The resolution of this point requires further analysis. To calculate the acceleration and nal particle velocity in the absence of such a detailed analysis, we make a self-similar expansion as a rst approximation where particle volume expands self-similarly from an initial volumeVi to a nal volume V f . The nal volume can be approximated by the plasma volume V, thus V f V. Particles are thus accelerated by falling in a potential difference f i, where f is obtained from 5 for given V. The nal particle velocity, which is also the exhaust velocity Vex, is given by Vex =

thermal uxes in the plasma. The equilibrium charge Q is attained very rapidly on a time scale . Since Q T, in the cold plasma environment, the equilibrium charge is very small, in which case the particles loses most of its initial charge
III. CALCULATIONS

2 Q f i . mp

For given initial volume Vi, plasma volume V, injected number of particles N, plasma temperature T, and density n0, f and i can be obtained from 5 and the nal/exhaust velocity Vex from 6. This approximation gives a lower bound on Vex. Actual velocity is expected to depend more on the exact nature of particle expansion. (d) Charge stripping and exhaust: Once the particles are accelerated, they need not retain their charge, in which case it can be stripped. This will produce an exhaust of neutral particles, obviating the need for a charge neutralizer. Particle charge can be stripped by passing the escaping particles which eventually produce thrust through cold plasma before their nal exit from the nozzle. Since Q scales directly with plasma temperature, particles will lose most of the charge in this passage. Once the particles are stripped of their charge, they can be exhausted through a nozzle of area A with velocity Vex to produce the required thrust. Unlike the ion engine, the xenon plasma need not be exhausted along with the particles. This can be achieved by magnetizing the nozzle so that it connes the plasma but not the neutral particles. In the case of colloid thrusters, the electrostatically extracted Taylor cone narrows into a jet. When the electrostatic repulsion approaches the restoring force due to its capillarity, the jet breaks up into smaller charged droplets via the instability of surface oscillations Rayleigh mechanism. Once the charge on the droplets is removed by some mechanism, say, then the ES repulsion is weakened in comparison to the restoring force due to the capillarity. In this regime, the jet is again the stable conguration and hence the droplets will coagulate and lose their identity. On the other hand, in the case of particles the situation is different. First, particles exist independently of the charge; their identity does not depend on their charge. Second, stripping charge off particles is relatively easier as charging and discharging particles in a plasma environment is like charging a spherical capacitor by

In this section, we show that with typical particle and plasma parameters, which are within the range of presentday technology, it is possible to obtain desired parameters of a microthruster, i.e., thrust Fth 1050 N and specic impulse Isp 50100 s. To show this, we consider a 500 cm3 Xe plasma of density n0 = 1010 cm3 and temperature T = 50 eV. In this plasma, we inject N = 108 uncharged submicrometer-sized particles with diameter d = 0.1 m in an initial volume Vi = 50 cm3. Thus the initial density of particles is n pi = 2 106 cm3. Once these particles are in the plasma, they get charged and along with it the electrostatic pressure PE develops rapidly within Vi. The particle charge Q = a, where d / 2 = a is the particle radius, and the particle = 4.5, surface potential is given by 4. For a xenon ion, hence Z = Q / q 104. (a) Thrust: To calculate the thrust Fth, we consider a self-similar expansion of the initial particle drop Vi =50 cm3, which expands to ll the whole plasma volume and thus V f V = 500 cm3 with average particle density n pf = 2 105 cm3. We consider a simple model where the plasma is contained in a chamber tted with an exhaust nozzle of area A = 10 cm2. The thrust produced on the chamber is given by the formula
2 Fth = n pf m PVex A + p e p A A ,

where pe and pA are the exhaust and ambient particle kinetic pressures, respectively. Typically, the second term in 7 is 2 = Q = aT2 / q2 , where small while 1 / 2m pVex = i f and = q / T. Hence thrust is given by Fth = 2n pf aT2 A . q2 8

This equation shows a direct scaling of Fth with the particle size and the square of the plasma temperature. For given Vi and V f , the corresponding potentials are obtained from 5 and are given by i = 50 V and f = 5 V, hence = i f = 45 V and = q / T 1. Thus particles fall through a potential difference of nearly 45 V and produce a thrust Fth 30 N. With a higher n pf = 5 105 cm3, Fth 100 N can be achieved. These numbers are comparable to the thrust produced by colloid thrusters.8 To get an extra push, the exhaust nozzle, instead of being at zero potential, could be biased to a positive potential. For instance, by biasing the exhaust nozzle at +50 V, the thrust will be doubled while the specic impulse will increase 1.4 times. (b) Specic impulse: This parameter measures the efciency of the propulsion system and is given by sp = Vex / g, where g = 980 cm/ s2 is the acceleration due to gravity. It gives the amount of momentum generated per unit weight on earth of the propellant. For an efcient system, it should

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Phys. Plasmas 14, 053507 2007

FIG. 1. Layout of dustplasma thruster. Hot plasma and particles are stored in separate chambers. Plasma followed by particles are injected in the propulsion chamber. The initial particle drop expands under electrostatic pressure to create the thrust. The nozzle contains cold plasma to strip the charge and produce a neutral exhaust of particles. The nozzle is magnetized to allow particles but prevents the xenon plasma exhaust.

be large as higher sp implies less propellant consumption to gain a given momentum. For the present scheme, it is given by

sp =

1 g

2Q T 3 = mp gaq 2

1/2

where is the density of the material of particles. For Melamine-formaldehyde particles, 1.5 g / cm3. With the aforementioned parameters, Vex = 5 104 cm/ s and sp 50 s, which is somewhat less than that of colloid thrusters, which operate with sp 100500 s.8 Since sp scales directly with particle size, operating with smaller particles will increase sp but will also result in a reduced thrust. For example, if we use somewhat smaller particles with d = 0.05 m, then sp 100 s and Fth 10 N. However, the loss in thrust can be offset by increasing plasma temperature T or N. (c) Power: In this propulsion scheme, the thrust is produced at the expanse of plasma thermal energy. Hot electrons and ions impinge on particles, thereby charging them and simultaneously creating plasma potential to accelerate particles and produce thrust. Thus particles in plasma are a sink of plasma thermal energy as well as plasma particles electrons and ions. To sustain plasma against these inevitable losses and produce thrust in a steady state, energy will have to be supplied. The thermal power expanded per particle shot assuming there are no other losses can be calculated as follows. The total number of electrons and ions falling on a particle per unit time is 2Ie / q. Since each of these on average carry an energy T and N particles in the volume, the total thermal power expanded is Pth = 2Ie / q NT. Substituting values of parameters in this expression, we obtain Pth 10 mW. Further, as we are considering an isotropic selfsimilar expansion of the initial spherical volume Vi = 50 cm3 to a nal volume V f = 500 cm3 of radius R 5 cm, the shot lasts for approximately s = 100 s. During this time,

the total number of Xe ions lost is 2Ie / qN s 1011. A fraction of these will be recovered later when particles are stripped of the charge. Hence to sustain the plasma against losses and produce thrust in a steady state, 10 mW of power along with 1011 Xe ions and 108 particles per shot are required. These requirements are not exorbitant and can be easily met. If, as a rough estimate, we assume that there are 1000 shots per minute, then a typical 5 h burn would use 30 mg of propellant. Xenon consumption is not a serious constraint, as at this rate, 1 g would be enough for nearly 1011 shots. On the other hand, power-to-thrust ratio for this scheme is 103 N / W. This is much better than that of colloid thrusters, which operate with 20 N / W.8 It should be noted that these are power, plasma, and particle requirements for maintaining a steady state; initial requirements are not taken into account. Since the thrust and the specic impulse both scale with particle size, these parameters can be ne-tuned by controlling the particle size. With smaller particles d 0.1 m, the high-impulse low-thrust regime can be accessed, while with larger particles the low-impulse high-thrust regime can accessed. Apart from size dependence, the thrust and the impulse also depend on other parameters, e.g., number of injected particles N, plasma density, and temperature. Hence it should be possible to obtain sp and Fth over a broad range of values including a regime in which both are simultaneously large. For example, with small particle size, the loss in the thrust can be offset by increasing T and/or N. In Fig. 1, we show a possible layout for this scheme. Hot plasma is prepared and stored in a plasma chamber and supplies the propulsion chamber tted with a nozzle tube of diameter A. Similarly, particles are stored separately in another chamber and can be injected in the propulsion chamber for producing thrust. The nozzle tube contains cold plasma to strip particle charge and is magnetized to prevent plasma exhaust. It should be noted that the parameters given here

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V = 500 cm3, Vi = 50 cm3, N = 108, A = 10 cm2 can be easily rescaled to smaller values for instance V = 100 cm3, Vi = 10 cm3, etc. for reducing the thruster size. Of course actual parameters will be mission-specic. The electrostatic disruption of 0.1 m particles under Coulombic repulsion with nearly 104 charges is not a serious problem because the critical radius below which a par / q f s m, where f s is ticle disrupts is given by rc = 6.65T 10 the tensile strength of the material. For melamine particles = 4.5 and T = 50 eV, rc f s = 7 1011 dyn / cm2 and hence for 2 107 cm and hence 0.1 m particles will not disrupt electrostatically. We now compare our scheme with that of nanoFET.15 In the latter, nanoparticles are charged by an electrode in a dielectric uid. These particles are subsequently extracted out of the uid and accelerated by electric elds to produce the thrust. Care is taken to avoid Taylor cone formation and droplet ejection. The separate charge neutralization is not required as alternate thrusting cells work with opposite polarity. In both schemes, the thrust-to-power ratio is comparable, i.e., 1 N / kW, while the dependence on particle size allows a better precision and tunability of the thrust and the specic impulse over a broad range of parameters. However, in our scheme, particles are charged in a natural fashion, in low-density tenuous plasma by thermal uxes, and are accelerated in self-consistent plasma elds. Thus, our scheme avoids all problems related to particle dynamics in the uid that are inherent in the nanoFET concept, e.g., extraction of particles against gravitation, viscous drag and surface tension from the uid, leaking of particle charge in the uid, acceleration of comoving uid, and the formation of a Taylor cone and small droplets. However, it still retains all its advantages. In addition, since our scheme involves low-density plasma and particles, it can operate in space and vacuum with a simple design.
IV. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSIONS

avoids all problems related to particles dynamics faced in the nanoFET concept, i.e., extraction of nanoparticles against gravity, viscous drag, surface tension, surface instabilities, etc. The dependence on particle size and other parameters such as plasma temperature, density, and number of injected particles is expected to allow for a better precision and a broader range of thrust and impulse. In these calculations, we have made the approximation of self-similar expansion of initial particle volume, hence the numbers, e.g., sp and Fth, may be underestimated. Since electrostatic pressure rises rapidly after neutral particles are injected, the initial volume is most likely to explode in a small detonation. If it detonates, then particles will move with a speed greater than the sound speed, which is 105 cm/ s for these parameters. It will also increase n pf . Both of these factors will increase the thrust and the specic impulse. This issue requires further careful investigations via computer simulations. Our scheme relies on converting plasma thermal energy into mechanical work via electrostatic pressure. This is not a cyclic process. We will show elsewhere that it is possible to run a thermodynamic cycle with a heat sources and sinks using electrostatic pressure and where interesting questions related to entropy of charging will be addressed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are grateful to the referee for pointing out the work on the nanoFET concept. One of the authors K.A. is grateful for the hospitality at UCR-IGPP where this work was done as a part of the collaboration.
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1 2

To summarize, we propose a new method of micropropulsion in space, i.e., dustplasma thruster. The scheme is based on using plasma thermal energy to charge submicrometer-sized particles and simultaneously create a potential difference in plasma that accelerates them. These are subsequently charge-stripped and exhausted to produce a thrust. The scheme may be realized in a simple design in which there are no high-voltage grids or electrodes, charge neutralizer, valves, or pressurized gases and it can operate in space or vacuum. We show that for reasonable particle and plasma parameters, thrust 10 30 N and a specic impulse 50 100 s may be produced. The power-to-thrust ratio 1 N / kW is better than that of colloid and ion thrusters and is comparable to that of nanoFET. However, our scheme

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