Ion thruster
Ion thrusters require power sources, either nuclear or solar.
Electrical drives are not new technology. They have been available for many years. However, lack of a suitable mission and, in particular, lack of an adequate power source has hampered their development. Although electrical propulsion is not very powerful, it is exceptionally efficient and can be applied for very long periods. So despite tiny accelerations, a vehicle with ion thrusters can eventually reach very high speeds.
Contents
Electrothermal Propulsion Systems
Resistojets
Arcjets
An arcjet heats a propellant using an electric arc rather than a chemical reaction. It is therefore a thermal engine. The ISP from an arcjet can be higher than for a chemical rocket, but remains at around 500s, one order of magnitude less than what is required for systems more efficient that standard chemical rockets.
Microwave & ECR thrusters
Electromagnetic Propulsion Systems
Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) Thrusters[1]
In a MPD thruster a gas is ionised, turned into a plasma and fed into a acceleration chamber, where the interaction between an electrical current in the plasma and the magnetic field produced by electromagnets pushes the plasma up to high speeds. Vasimir is an application of this principle.
This is one of the best candidates for the Interplanetary propulsion. However, since it is more efficient at larger sizes, the lack of a suitable power source to test the principle in space has hampered the development of this technology. Thrusters with thrust up to 500 N and more are possible. SUPREME[2], an advanced MPD thruster utilizing high temperature superconductors, has been proposed for use in Earth/Luna missions and may also improve payload capacity for Earth/Mars missions.
VASIMR
The Vasimr (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma rocket) engine, as per 2011, has an optimum specific impulse of 5000s. The required power is 200 kW, with an efficiency of 60%, for a thrust of 6 N. The fuel is argon, but other gases can be used. The concept should be scalable up to 500N per unit.
Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
A material is transformed into a burst of plasma by a short lived electric arc (think of a spark plug), and the plasma is accelerated by the electric field between an anode and a cathode. This is a simple but inefficient type of thruster that, at 10% efficiency, is not suitable for Mars transportation.
However, in the following paper : http://alfven.princeton.edu/papers/tem_jpc2002.pdf a proposal is made for a much more powerful version, that, although still only 50% efficient, might be further upgraded to provide the required thrust. The proposed fuel would be lithium. The design is very simple, and might be very light.
Electrostatic Propulsion Systems
Hall effect
The Hall effect thruster is a (mostly) Russian technology. Over 200 units have been flown. Engine performances are comparable to ion grid. Hall effect thrusters are physically smaller than ion grid thrusters. This is a distinct advantage for some configurations. Wikipedia cites efficiencies up to 75%
Ion grid
The ion grid thruster is a mature technology that has performances very close to the Interplanetary transportation mission requirements.
The current NASA model is the NEXT thruster. The engine thrust is very small, at 0,2 N per motor, with 6,9 kW and 70% efficiency. The fuel is Xenon gas. With a size of about 600mm wide per unit, they are physically large.
The Hipep Ion engine has an efficiency of 80% and similar characteristics than the NEXT. The HIPEP is rectangular and can be assembled in tight grids. The model tested was 600mm x 1200mm (approx, to be confirmed).
Colloidal Accelerators & FEEP
NanoFET
This is a technology in the very early stages of development. The fuel is composed of tiny droplets of semi conductors, encased in a shell of protein. The propulsion method uses electric fields to accelerate the particles. Efficiencies may be very high. The envisioned market is micro satellites, but it might be possible to 'print out' large boards of these micro thrusters using micropressor production technologies and eventually reach the required thrust (with millions of thrusters).
Propellants
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is an effective propellant, very appropriate for high ISP thrusters.
Xenon
Xenon is an inert gas that is relatively easy to ionise and denser that other inert gases. It is the best choice for the fuel of most types of ion engines and may be used as well as an ionizing agent in the coolant system, to provide the required plasma for the MHD generator. Xenon is quite expensive, at about 20$ per liter (6g). There are about 45 billions tons of Xenon in Earth's atmosphere. Due to cost and availability concerns, argon may be a better choice that Xenon.
Argon
Argon is a inert gas that composes almost 1% of Earths atmosphere. It can be used instead of Xenon as propellant for electric propulsion. It should also be possible to use it as the ionising agent in the cooling system for a MHD generator operation. The Vasimir engine can use argon as propellant. Argon is available in the Martian atmosphere and might be an in-situ resource for space electric propulsion.
Krypton
Krypton, another inert gas, is used by SpaceX for the thrusters in its Constellation project.
Water
Water has been proposed for some kinds of thermal rockets. The high temperatures and the need for ionisation in electrical engines would probably dissociate water its components.
Helium
Helium is fairly easy to ionize.
Liquid metals
Sodium, Lithium, lead, lead bismuth, mercury have all been proposed for electric propulsion. Concerns with toxicity during testing has led to the the abandonment of a number of these metals.
Liquid salts
Nanofluids
Nanoparticles in suspension in a carrier fluid can have interesting propulsive properties.
