Study of RF-Inductive-Acceleration of Low Aspect Ratio Helicon Plasma using the Cusp Magnetic Field

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25630387
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Aerospace engineering
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KOIZUMI hiroyuki 東京大学, 先端科学技術研究センター, 准教授 (40361505)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 電気推進 / 大電力 / プラズマ / 無電極

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research is to propose a new, high-power electric propulsion system for the future advanced missions such as manned Mars exploration and asteroid exploration. We studied the feasibility and fundamental research as to the combination of high-density plasma by helicon-wave and inductive acceleration without applied magnetic fields and obtained the following results. 1) We succeeded to generate high-density plasma using a cusped-magnetic field in a low-aspect-ratio chamber, which is suitable for the electric propulsion application. The maximum density reached to 10 to the 19th power in cubic meters. 2) We simulated the final configuration of our proposal by a pulsed acceleration using a pulsed forming network, and we succeeded to estimate the plasma impedance which is inevitable for the steady state acceleration.

Free Research Field

宇宙推進工学