Since the early eighties the development of plasma thrusters has been
an important research topic at the IRS, where a broad spectrum of stat
ionary plasma thrusters has been investigated experimentally as well a
s theoretically. High power MPD thrusters (50 kW-1 MW) and a wide rang
e of thermal arcjets (0.5-150 kW) are developed under contracts with E
SA, NASA, USAF, USNAVY and with German funding. The IRS has excellent
installations for continuous tests of high power accelerators. The hig
h current power supply is a current regulated d.c. thyristor rectifier
of 6 MW. The maximum current is 48 kA with a ripple less than 1%. The
vacuum system is a roots pump system consisting of four stages with a
total suction power of about 250,000 m3/h at 1 Pa. Eight vacuum tanks
of different sizes are connected to this system; six of them are used
for plasma thruster development and two serve as plasma wind tunnels.
For low power arcjet development and basic cathode erosion experiment
s four additional independent test stands are available.