碘工质霍尔推力器原理样机设计与实验研究

Design and Experimental Research on Principle Prototype of Iodine Hall Thruster

氙气作为电推力器常用的推进剂,针对其具有自然界储量稀少,价格昂贵且提纯难度高的特点,采用电离能与氙相似的固态碘作为替代工质进行霍尔推力器点火实验来研究其基本性能。实验结果表明,控制贮供与推进系统的温度可以使进入放电通道的碘蒸气流量稳定,从而使推力器能够持续稳定地工作。在推力器为200 W量级工作条件下,推力靶测得其产生的推力约为8.9 mN。因此,碘工质在电推进领域具有较大应用前景,尤其对于位置保持以及深空探测任务,深入的推力器优化及设计工作将陆续展开。

Xenon gas is a common propellant for electric thrusters. In view of the characteristics of xenon gas with rare natural reserves, high price and difficult purification, solid iodine with similar ionization energy close to xenon is considered a substitute for the ignition experiment of Hall thruster to investigate its basic performance. The experimental results show that iodine vapor can stably enter the discharge channel by controlling the temperatures of supply and propulsion systems, so that the thruster can also operate continuously and stably. The thrust measured by a thrust target is about 8.9 mN under 200 W-class operating condition. Therefore, iodine propellant has a great application prospect in the electric propulsion field, especially for position maintenance and deep space exploration tasks. Further work on the optimization and design of the thruster will be successively carried out.