Non-Intrusive Characterization of the Wear of the HERMeS Thruster Using Optical Emission Spectroscopy

Gray, Timothy G ; Williams, George J, Jr ; Kamhawi, Hani ; Frieman, Jason D ; Mikellides, Ioannis

关键词: NONINTRUSIVE MEASUREMENT;    HALL EFFECT ROCKET WITH MAGNETIC SHIELDING (HERMES);    WEAR TESTS;    OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY;    HALL THRUSTERS;    ELECTRIC PROPULSION;    BORON NITRIDES;    EROSION;    SPECTROSCOPY;   

RP-ID  :  GRC-E-DAA-TN72554

学科分类：航空航天科学

美国|英语

来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 摘 要 】

The Hall Effect Rocket with Magnetic Shielding (HERMeS) is a 12.5 kW Hall thruster electric propulsion string that has been in development by NASA Glenn Research Center(GRC) and NASA JPL since 2012. Due to the magnetically shielded design, service life-limiting erosion of the boron nitride discharge has been virtually eliminated. The inner front pole cover (IFPC) has now been identified as the component defining erosion-based service life. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is used as an in-situ diagnostic to measure relative erosion trends during operation of the HERMeS thruster during a series of short duration wear tests. Erosion trends obtained from the OES data will be compared to traditional erosion data measured with a non-contact profilometer.