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Title: An RF heated tandem mirror plasma propulsion study

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5572927

Experimental results on a tandem mirror hybrid plume rocket involving a three-stage system of plasma injection, heating, and subsequent injection through a magnetic nozzle are presented. In the experiments, a plasma is created by breaking down the gas with electron cyclotron resonance heating at 2 kW in the central cell, and the ion species is then heated to high temperatures with ion cyclotron resonance heating at 10 kW in the end cell. A Langmuir probe measured an electron density of 2.5 x 10 to the 16th/cu m and a temperature of 100 eV in the central cell and an ion density of 1.25 x 10 to the 17th/cu m and a temperature of 500 eV in the end cell. 6 refs.

OSTI ID:
5572927
Report Number(s):
AIAA-Paper-89-2383; CONF-8907118-
Resource Relation:
Conference: 25. American Society of Mechanical Engineers joint propulsion conference, Monterey, CA (USA), 10-13 Jul 1989
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English