Electric Propulsion Research
In view of ISRO’s future requirement of high thrust and high efficiency electric propulsion systems, an initiative was undertaken at IIST to establish necessary research infrastructure for future high thrust electric propulsion systems at LPSC, Valiamala.
For this the “High Thrust Electric Propulsion” project was formed as an inter-center project with LPSC as the lead center. IIST is collaborating in this project for the design, development, testing and implementation of the diagnostic tools necessary for the proper characterization of the Stationary Plasma Thruster (SPT) being developed by LPSC under this project
Development of Ion Sources for electric propulsion diagnosis
Two sources were developed in-house for testing and development purposes (a) Back diffusion plasma source and (b) Ion beam source. An electric thruster is known to produce both charge exchange ion clouds and ion beams, thus sources were developed to produce both the environments created by the thruster. An ion beam deflector was also built to maneuver the ion beam as required for calibration of the probes being developed. The sources also required various gas lines to bring the gas wherever necessary. The plasma source can also be tuned to produce plasma conditions similar to that of lower earth ionospheric conditions, hence making the facility as India’s only ionospheric plasma simulator. All the payloads that are to be taken to the lower earth atmosphere can hence be tested in this facility.