ANALYSIS FOR THE PREFERABLE FIELDS OF ELECTRIC JET PROPULSION APPLICATION

Development of low-consumption propulsion sets, providing high total t hrust pulses, is necessary for a number of perspective space programs. While developing such propulsion sets it is advisable to use electric jet thrusters with high specific impulse. In view of this a problem a ppears for defining the preferable fields of application for various t ypes of electric jet propulsions. An attempt to estimate such fields f or some types of propulsions depending upon the total thrust pulse val ue is made in this paper. Wet propulsion set mass, which determines th e spacecraft final mass in operating orbit at given type of rocket car rier, is accepted as a criterion for comparison.