The Effect of Krypton Consumption through the Accelerator Channel on Thrust Efficiency of a Morozov’s Stationary Plasma Thruster

Abstract

Morozov’s stationary plasma thrusters (SPTs) operating on xenon have been successfully used in space technology for many years. At the same time, due to the high cost of xenon, now there is an increased interest in alternative working substances. One of them is krypton. Therefore, research has been conducted earlier on the features of operation and characteristics of SPTs using krypton, which have showed that they are traditional for SPTs. Here, we consider the results of studying the effect of krypton consumption on the thrust efficiency of SPTs. The importance of these results is determined by the fact that they determine the appropriate ranges of SPT regimes when working on krypton.