INVESTIGATION OF A SMALL, CLOSED ELECTRON-DRIFT, STATIONARY PLASMA THRUSTER

The interest in low-power electric thrusters stimulated our research o n a small stationary plasma thruster. The first results on the depende nce of the thrust, the discharge current, the ion current, and the axi al electron current on gas flow are reported. It was also shown that t he drop of the discharge current with magnetic field is strongly affec ted by the emission current of the filament neutralizer. (C) 1996 Amer ican Institute of Physics.