[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] NASA thrusters

[Robert Primak]

 Here are two videos which may help you visualize what's happening in a Hall Effect thruster:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHunhXk9i2s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfjmGMp43w


Ted's explanation will fill in the remaining details, I think.
-- Bob Primak




    On Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 04:28:00 PM EDT, John Rudy via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:  
 
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I just read this 3 times and still don’t understand it.  Of course there is a sentence in the middle that reminds me of my high school teacher’s “the proof will be left to the reader”.

John

==================================================     

  

Sci-fi propulsion is now a reality

David Oh, chief engineer for operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says this will be the first-ever mission to use Hall Effect thrusters in interplanetary space. What does that mean? Well basically, Hall Effect thrusters use electricity to ionize xenon gas — ionization refers to removing or adding one or two electrons from the atoms that make up a substance. In this case, the substance is a gas. 

Upon ionization, those atoms gain a charge. (Regular old atoms have neutral charges because their positive proton count and negative electron count are equal. Remove some electrons, for instance, and you lose some negativity.) The result? Ions. Then, those charged ions form an electric field which can, through a series of complicated steps, propel an object. In this case, that's the Psyche spacecraft. 

"They come out of the thruster going at 15 kilometers per second, or nine miles per second," Oh said. "That's five times faster than the speed of the fuel coming out of a regular chemical rocket."

  

  

John Rudy

  

781-861-0402

781-718-8334  cell

13 Hawthorne Lane

Bedford MA

jjrudy1 at comcast.net



  
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