Arcjet starting reliability - a multistart test on hydrogen/nitrogen mixtures

Conference · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987 · AIAA Pap.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6134466

Haag, T W; Curran, F M

An arcjet starting reliability test was performed to investigate one feasibility issue in the use of arcjets on board a satellite for north-south stationkeeping. A 1 kW arcjet was run on hydrogen/nitrogen gas mixtures simulating decomposed hydrazine. A pulse width modulated power supply with an integral high voltage starting pulser was used for arc ignition and steady-state operation. The test was performed in four phases in order to determine if starting characteristics changed as a result of long term thruster operation. More than 300 successful starts were accumulated over an operating time of 18 hr. Overall results indicate that there is a link between starting characteristics and long term thruster operation; however, the large number of starts had no effect on steady-state performance. 9 references.

• Research Organization: NASA, Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH
• OSTI ID: 6134466
• Report Number(s): AIAA-Paper-8-1061; CONF-870558-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AIAA Pap.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420200* -- Engineering-- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques
DISPERSIONS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FUELS
HYDROGEN FUELS
MIXTURES
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
POWER SUPPLIES
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
RELIABILITY
SATELLITES
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
START-UP
SYNTHETIC FUELS
TESTING
THRUSTERS