Polk James E, Goebel Dan M, Snyder John S, Schneider Analyn C, Johnson Lee K, Sengupta Anita
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2012 Jul;83(7):073306. doi: 10.1063/1.4728415.
The Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System ion thruster was developed for potential outer planet robotic missions using nuclear electric propulsion (NEP). This engine was designed to operate at power levels ranging from 13 to 28 kW at specific impulses of 6000-8500 s and for burn times of up to 10 years. State-of-the-art performance and life assessment tools were used to design the thruster, which featured 57-cm-diameter carbon-carbon composite grids operating at voltages of 3.5-6.5 kV. Preliminary validation of the thruster performance was accomplished with a laboratory model thruster, while in parallel, a flight-like development model (DM) thruster was completed and two DM thrusters fabricated. The first thruster completed full performance testing and a 2000-h wear test. The second successfully completed vibration tests at the full protoflight levels defined for this NEP program and then passed performance validation testing. The thruster design, performance, and the experimental validation of the design tools are discussed in this paper.
核电氙离子系统离子推进器是为使用核电推进（NEP）的潜在外行星机器人任务而开发的。该发动机设计用于在13至28千瓦的功率水平下运行，比冲为6000 - 8500秒，燃烧时间长达10年。采用了最先进的性能和寿命评估工具来设计推进器，其特点是直径57厘米的碳 - 碳复合格栅在3.5 - 6.5千伏的电压下运行。推进器性能的初步验证是通过实验室模型推进器完成的，与此同时，一个类似飞行的开发模型（DM）推进器完成并制造了两个DM推进器。第一个推进器完成了全面性能测试和2000小时的磨损测试。第二个推进器成功完成了针对该NEP计划定义的全原型飞行级别的振动测试，然后通过了性能验证测试。本文讨论了推进器的设计、性能以及设计工具的实验验证。
