2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Development of ion engine lifetime estimation system using Cavity ring down Spectroscopy technique
| Project/Area Number |
23656540
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Aerospace engineering
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMAMOTO Naoji 九州大学, 総合理工学研究院, 准教授 (40380711)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2011 – 2012
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| Keywords | イオンエンジン / 寿命評価 / キャビティリングダウン法 / 電気推進 / 光学測定 |
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| Research Abstract |
Ion thruster and other Electric propulsion devices have become alternatives to traditional chemical propulsion for space application. HAYABUSA developed by JAXA succeeded in gathering samples from an asteroid and return to the Earth. The ion engines require long operational period of more than 10,000 hours, due to the limitation of electric power supply in space. It makes assessment for lifetime difficult: The experiment of durability certification requires several tens of thousands hour and enormous cost. Instead of conventional lifetime validation methods, real time lifetime estimation sensor is required. The lifetime limiter of the ion thrusters is wear of the accelerator grid. Therefore, lifetime of the ion thruster can be estimated by detecting wear amount of the acceleration grid, which is obtained by detecting sputtered particles from the acceleration grid. Therefore, we developed detection system of sputtered particles using cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) technique.
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