| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Usually, in magnetoplasma thrusters, two helical antennas are equipped to produce and heat plasmas with separate radio frequency (RF) sources. It is also necessary to analyze precisely wave excitation and propagation in a realistic situation including non-uniformity and finite temperature. In this research, a RF-driven magnetoplasma thruster is constructed with utilization of rotating RF fields. It is found experimentally and theoretically that a helical antenna exhibits bi-directional nature, where the waves with different mode numbers are launched and couple with electrons and ions selectively in opposite directions. These two waves are observed to produce high-density plasmas and to heat ions simultaneously, indicating that a specific impulse can be adjusted by changing the strength of the magnetic field.
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