• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.76-86
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• 2008

The EP(electric propulsion) is unique in that several energy sources can be utilized to produce the electric energy and that high exhaust velocity can be achieved compared to the conventional chemical propulsion. Though a lot of variety of non chemical propulsion are under study, the fact that the EP's specific impulse ranges widely from 200s to 5000s led most research to concentrate on the electric propulsion research. This paper, therefore, is aimed to introduce the up-todate existing EP family such as electrothermal, electrostatic and electromagnetic thrusters where its operating concepts, characteristics and possible variants are presented for future applications.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.216-223
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• 2024

Electric propulsion systems, including electrothermal, electrostatic, and electromagnetic thrusters, are promising systems for producing thrust from satellites. These systems generally operate under vacuum plasma conditions and exhibit high specific impulses and thrust-to-weight ratios. Despite their high efficiencies, electric propulsion systems are susceptible to performance variations due to physical factors such as plasma instabilities, which require an accurate diagnosis of their status during operation. In this study, we review various measurement systems adopted to diagnose electric propulsion systems operating under vacuum conditions. Specifically, we review electrical, optical, and other methods that can directly or indirectly measure the status of a thruster, with a particular focus on Hall effect thrusters. The system configurations and fundamental mechanisms of the different measurement systems are described based on case studies of the diagnosis of propulsion systems. We anticipate that this study will contribute to the efficient development and safe operation of electric propulsion systems for use in artificial satellites.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.570-573
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• 2008

In spite of many experimental studies of low-power applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic(AFMPD) thrusters, thrust efficiencies of the past thrusters are very low. Hence, drastic improvement in thrust performance is required for AF-MPD thrusters to compete against other types of electric propulsion in a moderate power regime around 10 kW. For the optimization of AF-MPD thrusters, a numerical code for the flowfield simulation is now under development. A preliminary result shows that the code can deal with a complicated mixture of the induced and applied magnetic fields, which will lead to a combination of the self-field, swirl, Hall, as well as electrothermal accelerations.