Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion


An electrically-powered spacecraft propulsion system uses electrical, and possibly also magnetic fields, to change the velocity of a spacecraft. Most of these kinds of spacecraft propulsion systems work by electrically expelling propellant at high speed.
Electric thrusters typically use much less propellant than chemical rockets because they have a higher exhaust speed than chemical rockets. Due to limited electric power the thrust is much weaker compared to chemical rockets, but electric propulsion can provide a small thrust for a long duration of time. Electric propulsion can achieve high speeds over long periods and thus can work better than chemical rockets for some deep space missions.
Electric propulsion is now a mature and widely used technology on spacecraft. Russian satellites have used electric propulsion for decades and it is predicted that by 2020, half of all new satellites will carry full electric propulsion., over 500 spacecraft operated throughout the Solar System use electric propulsion for station keeping, orbit raising, or primary propulsion. In the future, the most advanced electric thrusters may be able to impart a Delta-v of 100 km/s, which is enough to take a spacecraft to the outer planets of the Solar System, but is insufficient for interstellar travel. An electric rocket with an external power source has a theoretical possibility for interstellar flight. However, electric propulsion is not a method suitable for launches from the Earth's surface, as the thrust for such systems is too weak.

History

The idea of electric propulsion for spacecraft dates back to 1911, introduced in a publication by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Earlier, Robert Goddard had noted such a possibility in his personal notebook.
Electrically-powered propulsion with a nuclear reactor was considered by Dr. Tony Martin for interstellar Project Daedalus in 1973, but the novel approach was rejected because of very low thrust, the heavy equipment needed to convert nuclear energy into electricity, and as a result a small acceleration, which would take a century to achieve the desired speed.
The demonstration of electric propulsion was an ion engine carried on board the SERT-1 spacecraft, launched on 20 July 1964 and it operated for 31 minutes. A follow-up mission launched on 3 February 1970, SERT-2, carried two ion thrusters, one operated for more than five months and the other for almost three months.
By the early 2010s, many satellite manufacturers were offering electric propulsion options on their satellites—mostly for on-orbit attitude control—while some commercial communication satellite operators were beginning to use them for geosynchronous orbit insertion in place of traditional chemical rocket engines.

Types

Ion and plasma drives

These types of rocket-like reaction engines use electric energy to obtain thrust from propellant carried with the vehicle. Unlike rocket engines, these kinds of engines do not necessarily have rocket nozzles, and thus many types are not considered true rockets.
Electric propulsion thrusters for spacecraft may be grouped into three families based on the type of force used to accelerate the ions of the plasma:

Electrostatic

If the acceleration is caused mainly by the Coulomb force the device is considered electrostatic.
Ion drives are essentially particle accelerators that shoot streams of particles out the rocket's exhaust jet. Particle accelerators currently in use are not for propulsion; their main uses are in research and industry for the purposes of producing effects for measurements of scientific interest, or producing effects on a target such as in nuclear spallation or ion implantation.
Thus the kinds of particle accelerators needed to serve as ion drives are very different from conventional accelerators in their construction and operating parameters. There are two main parameters that a particle accelerator must balance against one another: beam energy and beam current. Generally, conventional accelerators are optimized either for very high particle energy and low current or low energy and high current. The primary obstacle to the satisfaction of these parameters is that all the particles comprising the beam are electrically charged, so they all repel and jostle one another inside the beam volume, and thus resist collimation. The higher the beam energy and the higher the particle density, the greater the resistance the particles offer to further acceleration and collimation.
To be effective as a means of propulsion, the accelerator used as an ion drive should have the highest possible beam energy and beam current simultaneously. No such accelerator has yet been constructed that could produce more than a few tens or hundreds of newtons of thrust.
The electrothermal category groups the devices where electromagnetic fields are used to generate a plasma to increase the temperature of the bulk propellant. The thermal energy imparted to the propellant gas is then converted into kinetic energy by a nozzle of either solid material or magnetic fields. Low molecular weight gases are preferred propellants for this kind of system.
An electrothermal engine uses a nozzle to convert the heat of a gas into linear motion in its molecules, so it is a true rocket even though the energy producing the heat comes from an external source.
Performance of electrothermal systems in terms of specific impulse is somewhat modest, but exceeds that of cold gas thrusters, monopropellant rockets, and even most bipropellant rockets. In the USSR, electrothermal engines were used since 1971; the Soviet "Meteor-3", "Meteor-Priroda", "Resurs-O" satellite series and the Russian "Elektro" satellite are equipped with them. Electrothermal systems by Aerojet are currently used on Lockheed Martin A2100 satellites using hydrazine as a propellant.
If ions are accelerated either by the Lorentz force or by the effect of electromagnetic fields where the electric field is not in the direction of the acceleration, the device is considered electromagnetic.

Photonic

Photonic drive does not expel matter for reaction thrust, only photons. See Laser propulsion, Photonic Laser Thruster, Photon rocket.

Electrodynamic tether

Electrodynamic tethers are long conducting wires, such as one deployed from a tether satellite, which can operate on electromagnetic principles as generators, by converting their kinetic energy to electric energy, or as motors, converting electric energy to kinetic energy. Electric potential is generated across a conductive tether by its motion through the Earth's magnetic field. The choice of the metal conductor to be used in an electrodynamic tether is determined by a variety of factors. Primary factors usually include high electrical conductivity, and low density. Secondary factors, depending on the application, include cost, strength, and melting point.

Controversial

A number of propulsion methods have been proposed, where it is unclear that they can work according to the currently-understood laws of physics, including:
Electric propulsion systems can also be characterized as either steady or unsteady. However, these classifications are not unique to electric propulsion systems and can be applied to all types of propulsion engines.

Dynamic properties

Electrically-powered rocket engines provide lower thrust compared to chemical rockets by several orders of magnitude because of the limited electrical power possible to provide in a spacecraft. A chemical rocket imparts energy to the combustion products directly, whereas an electrical system requires several steps. However, the high velocity and lower reaction mass expended for the same thrust allows electric rockets to run for a long time. This differs from the typical chemical-powered spacecraft, where the engines run only in short intervals of time, while the spacecraft mostly follows an inertial trajectory. When near a planet, low-thrust propulsion may not offset the gravitational attraction of the planet. An electric rocket engine cannot provide enough thrust to lift the vehicle from a planet's surface, but a low thrust applied for a long interval can allow a spacecraft to maneuver near a planet.