Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster with an applied field based on the second generation high-temperature superconductors

Abstract The present work reports the results of the magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster with an applied field (AF) based on the second-generation high-temperature superconductor (2G HTS) tape functioning research. Achieved thrust, specific impulse, and efficiency were investigated. Experiments were performed on the 25-kW magnetoplasmadynamic thruster model with two types of 10-mm and 17-mm cathodes. The investigation tests were performed with the goal of studying the efficiency of using 2G HTS tape as electromagnetic coils creating applied field for MPD thruster. The used as the applied magnetic field for thruster 2G HTS coil creates magnetic field up to 1 Tesla. The results showed that the thrust and specific impulse with HTSC applied field increases up to 300% and efficiency increases up to 700%. The best achieved results are following: thrust up to 850 mN, specific impulse up to 3840 s, and efficiency up to 54%. Created MPD thruster with HTSC applied field has a resource of 5400 s work total with all the cathodes, more than 150 launches, and single continuous launch up to 140 seconds. The experiments performed show the high efficiency of using the 2G HTS tape as the material for the electromagnetic coils creating applied field for magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters. Strong applied field up to 1 T electromagnetic coils were maid of the 2G HTS tape by SuperOx own production facilities.