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Study of RF Plasma Technology Applied to Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion

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Study of RF Plasma Technology Applied to Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion Study of RF Plasma Technology Applied to Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion by Adam Shabshelowitz A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Aerospace Engineering) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Professor Alec D. Gallimore, Chair Associate Professor John E. Foster Assistant Professor Benjamin Longmier Dean R. Massey, ElectroDynamic Applications, Inc. ∗ N = R × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L = 10 – Dr. Frank Drake, 1961 © Adam Shabshelowitz 2013 All Rights Reserved For my friends and family. Thank you. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We did it! Of course, I say “we” because there is no way I could have done this all on my own. I would like to thank everyone for everything that they did to help me get to this point. First, thanks to my advisor, Alec Gallimore. Thank you for your giving me you unwavering support and sage wisdom throughout my time at Michigan. I am truly grateful for the opportunities and experiences that you have provided for me, and I am proud to be a part of the PEPL family. Thanks also to my dissertation committee members. Professor Foster, thank you for being so encouraging, for listening to and understanding the woes of RF plasma research, and for being so friendly at conferences and in the hallways. Professor Longmier, welcome to Michigan, and thank you for being a part of my dissertation committee. It was great getting to know you first as an Ad Astra employee at PEPL, then at conferences, and now I am glad that Michigan has added a great Professor to the Aerospace department. I look forward to seeing the great things that you will accomplish. And finally, thank you, Dr. Dean. Our time in Ann Arbor overlapped almost exactly, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity both to work with you in the lab and to become your friend. You took an interest in my research, provided me with encouragement and advice, and were always willing to just try stuff out in the lab. Your honesty, creativity, and multi-disciplinary-mindedness is an inspiration to us all. I would also like to thank the National Science Foundation for accepting me as a Graduate Research Fellow. The NSF fellowship provided me with that extra bit of encouragement to follow through with a research plan and get a Ph.D. My thanks also go to the members of PEPL, past and present. To those who came before me and made PEPL the great place it is, and to those who have showed me how to continue that tradition. A special thanks goes to Tim Smith not only for being a knowledge base for all my PEPL questions, but also for allowing me to be a lab instructor for Aero 305. Thank you for continuing to teach the undergrads how to properly use the lab equipment and for being a great mentor to me. Thank you, Pete, for patiently showing me how to work with Hall thrusters. To the PEPL members that I have met at conferences and during visits to Ann Arbor: Prashant, Dan, Dave, Rich, and Brad. It has been great getting iii to know you all. To the PEPL people who came before me: Thank you, Bryan, for showing me the ropes at PEPL. I look forward to working with you again at Lincoln Laboratory. Thank you, Kristina, for teaching me the RF rain dance and for getting me involved with helicon research at PEPL. Thank you, Sonca, for helping my NSF application succeed. Thank you, Robbie, for always being curious and willing to teach me about whatever either of us were working on. Thank you, Tom, for being the voice of reason and showing us all what a strong work ethic really is. Thank you, Rohit, for always sticking with a problem until it is solved, and for being Giggles. Thank you, Ricky, for always being courteous and helpful in the lab. Thank you, Wensheng, for teaching me both about lasers and how to manage my ninjas. Thanks to Mike M. for always being willing to share equipment stashes or show me how to use LabView codes. To my contemporaries at PEPL: Thank you, Laura, for being my RF buddy, and for the pumpkin pie cupcakes. Those are awesome. And stop making that look while you’re reading this. Thank you Ray (“Monk”), for being a great quals study partner, and for always making things nicer in the lab, both in terms of the equipment and the general cheerfulness. I wish you all the best at Space Systems Loral. To the younger/more recent members of PEPL: Roland (“CE”), just remember to relax. The X3 will be here soon, and then we’ll all be expecting pictures like the baby photos that get sent out. Mike S., Kim, and Chris D., keep up the good work and hang in there. It’s been a great pleasure working with you all. Chris B., I hope you come back to continue working at the lab. You enthusiasm for everything to do with space is great for morale. Scott, I know you’re the new guy now, but before you know it you’ll be the senior lab member. Keep up the PEPL tradition. Extra special thanks to Denise, Tom, Terry, Chris, Eric, Dave, Suzanne, Cindy E., and Aaron for everything that you do for all of us graduate students. We wouldn’t get through it without your help and support. Thank you, Colleen, for helping us always find a time to meet with Alec. A special thank you also goes to Peggy Gramer for helping me get through all the paperwork for my NERS MSE. Many thanks also go to Anthony Sebastian of the University of Michigan’s Lurie Nanofabrication Facility for showing me a great deal about implementing RF hardware in plasma systems. I’d also like to thank Professor Mitchell Walker, Logan Williams, and Alex Kieckhafer of Georgia Tech for many helpful discussions regarding RF. I also would like to acknowledge the Air Force Research Laboratory and Aerojet for their creation of the HHT. Thank you to all of the friends that I’ve met while in Ann Arbor. In particular, to the Aero Scotch and Wine Clubs, the med students, the golf course tailgate, and the Michigan iv Marlies for helping me keep a healthy level of work-life balance, and for introducing me to Michigan sports. I don’t have enough space to list every one, but each and every one of you has helped me along the way, and I hope you all know that you are appreciated. Thank you to all of my friends back home for constantly asking me when I’ll be done. Well, I’m done and I’m moving back home, so I’ll see you all very shortly. Finally, thanks to my family for being so supportive of me all the time. Eric and Leah, I look forward to seeing you more often. Mom and Dad, thank you for trusting me enough to take some time off. I love you, and even though I’m not great at showing it, I really do appreciate all of the love and support that you always give to me. Adam Shabshelowitz January 2013 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ....................................... ii Acknowledgments ................................... iii List of Figures ..................................... ix List of Tables ...................................... xii List of Appendices ................................... xiii List of Abbreviations ................................. xiv Nomenclature ..................................... xvi Abstract ......................................... xxii Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................... 1 1.1 Motivation . .2 1.2 History of Air-Breathing Spacecraft . .6 1.2.1 Early Studies . .6 1.2.2 Other Applications . .8 1.2.3 Recent Work . 11 1.3 Research Goals . 14 2 Background ..................................... 15 2.1 Earth’s Atmosphere . 15 2.2 Kinetic Theory . 17 2.3 Propulsion Systems . 20 2.3.1 Rocket Propulsion . 20 2.3.2 Air-Augmented Rocket Propulsion . 24 2.3.3 Electric Propulsion . 26 2.4 Air-Breathing Spacecraft . 28 2.4.1 Model . 29 2.4.2 Example . 34 2.4.3 Practicality . 42 2.5 Propulsion Requirements . 44 vi 2.5.1 Why RF? . 44 2.6 Conclusion . 47 3 RF Plasma Systems ................................. 48 3.1 RF Engineering Principles . 48 3.1.1 Impedance and Admittance . 51 3.1.2 Transmission Lines . 53 3.1.3 Impedance Matching . 56 3.1.4 Smith Chart . 59 3.2 Plasma . 61 3.2.1 Magnetic Field Interactions . 68 3.2.2 RF Plasma . 71 4 Thrusters ....................................... 74 4.1 Radio frequency Plasma Thruster . 74 4.1.1 Preliminary Investigations . 75 4.1.2 RPT Design . 77 4.1.3 RPT Assembly . 79 4.2 Helicon Hall Thruster . 82 4.2.1 HHT Principle of Operation . 83 4.2.2 HHT Assembly . 84 4.2.3 Previous Work . 84 5 Experiment Setup .................................. 86 5.1 Test Facility . 86 5.2 RF Power System . 87 5.3 Diagnostics . 91 5.3.1 Dual-Directional Coupler . 91 5.3.2 Thrust Stand . 94 5.3.3 Faraday Probe . 98 5.3.4 Retarding Potential Analyzer . 100 5.3.5 Langmuir Probe . 103 5.4 Thruster Setup . 104 5.4.1 RPT . 104 5.4.2 HHT . 105 6 Results ........................................ 107 6.1 RPT Results . 107 6.1.1 RF Power Measurements . 108 vii 6.1.2 Argon Performance . 109 6.1.3 Argon Probe Measurements . 113 6.1.4 RPT Operating on Nitrogen & Air . 115 6.2 HHT Results . 118 6.2.1 Single-stage operation . 119 6.2.2 Two-stage operation . 121 7 Discussion ...................................... 124 7.1 RPT . 124 7.1.1 RPT Methodology .
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