103 results about "Ion thruster" patented technology

The invention relates to the technical field of space electric propulsion, in particular to an ion thruster discharge chamber magnetic pole optimization method, which obtains an optimized discharge chamber magnetic pole structure by researching plasma generation and evolution behaviors under a specific magnetic pole structure based on a plasma numerical simulation process. On one hand, plasma characteristic parameters which cannot be tested by a test are obtained by using a numerical simulation means and a basic discharge principle of a discharge chamber, and on the other hand, change relationships between electron motion behaviors and the magnetic field intensity of a cathode magnetic pole and the magnetic field intensity of a conical section magnetic field are established; the working process and the working mechanism in the discharge chamber when the ion thruster works are understood more deeply, and data support and technical support are provided for optimization design of the discharge chamber of the ion thruster.

The present invention proposes a sputtering cleaning system and cleaning method for the inner wall of the ionization chamber of a radio frequency ion thruster. The system is composed of a gas distributor, a potential control line, a radio frequency coil, an ionization chamber, a screen grid, an acceleration grid, a positive DC voltage source, a radio frequency power supply, a negative DC voltage source and a conductive tape. The method includes: 1. The radio frequency ion thruster is started, and plasma is formed in the ionization chamber; 2. A positive voltage is applied to the screen grid, and ions are drawn out by the grid system, and the thruster enters a working state; 3. When the conductive film is thicker and the power input is weakened, the positive DC power supply is turned off, and no ions are drawn out of the thruster; 4. The negative DC power supply is turned on, and a negative voltage is slowly applied to the potential control line to increase the energy of ions hitting the inner wall of the ionization chamber; 5. The conductive film on the inner wall of the ionization chamber is bombarded by ions, and particles are sputtered out. The particles are neutral and are discharged from the ionization chamber under the action of the neutral particle flow, thereby achieving cleaning of the inner wall of the ionization chamber.

The invention belongs to the technical field of spacecraft electric propulsion systems, and relates to an on-satellite autonomous recovery method for a non-resident fault induced by ion electric propulsion ignition, which comprises the following steps of: judging whether a fault occurring in an ignition process of an ion electric propulsion system is an ignition fault, if so, controlling the ion electric propulsion to start a discharge chamber ignition mode, and if not, starting the discharge chamber ignition mode; in the mode, after waiting for a first preset time t1, judging whether an ion electric propulsion acceleration current is within a preset range or not, if yes, successful autonomous recovery is achieved, ignition of ion electric propulsion is stopped, and after waiting for a third preset time t3, the ion electric propulsion is autonomously recovered to a normal ignition mode; otherwise, stopping ignition of the ion electric propulsion, waiting for a second preset time t2, and repeating the process for multiple times after the ion thruster is cooled.

A gas distributor for improving ionization efficiency of a radio frequency ion thruster, comprising a gas supply pipeline, a cavity, a flow guide ball, radial rotational flow holes, axial diffusion holes and a flow guide ball limiter, the gas supply pipeline and the cavity are integrally formed, the radial rotational flow holes and the axial diffusion holes are dispersedly arranged in the cavity, the flow guide ball is filled into the cavity through the gas supply pipeline, the flow guide ball limiter is arranged in the cavity to prevent relative movement of the flow guide ball in the cavity, and the gas distributor composed of the gas supply pipeline, the cavity, the flow guide ball, the radial rotational flow holes, the axial diffusion holes and the flow guide ball limiter is arranged at the bottom of a discharge chamber of the thruster.

The invention provides a Hall and ion hybrid electric propulsion system. The Hall and ion hybrid electric propulsion system comprises a composite material gas cylinder, an inflation valve, a pressure adjusting module, a Hall flow adjusting module, an ion flow adjusting module, a Hall thruster, an ion thruster, an electric propulsion control unit, a power processing unit and a power supply processing and control unit, the pressure adjusting module supplies gas to the Hall flow adjusting module and the ion flow adjusting module in a time-sharing manner; the Hall flow regulation module and the ion flow regulation module are used for carrying out flow control on the Hall thruster and the ion thruster respectively; the electric push control unit performs time-sharing power supply control on the power processing unit and the power supply processing and control unit; the power processing unit and the power supply processing and control unit respectively provide electric energy for the Hall thruster and the ion thruster; the Hall thruster and the ion thruster provide thrust or impulse for the spacecraft; according to the Hall and ion hybrid electric propulsion system, the integrated design of air supply, power supply and autonomous process control of the Hall and ion thrusters is achieved, system air path and circuit configuration is simplified, and the requirement for a spacecraft with high specific impulse and high thrust electric propulsion systems at the same time is met.

The invention relates to the technical field of space electric propulsion, in particular to a high-integration-level radio frequency ion electric propulsion system and a control method thereof. The system comprises an upper computer, a bus power supply, a working medium gas storage and supply unit, a power supply processing and control unit, a thruster impedance matcher, a radio frequency ion thruster, a neutralizer impedance matcher and a radio frequency neutralizer. According to the radio frequency ion electric propulsion system, the application requirements and the working characteristics of the radio frequency ion electric propulsion system are combined, all the single machines form a complete high-integration-level system, the problems that all the single machines are distributed in a scattered mode, and the system compatibility is poor due to interface conversion are solved, and the application reliability is enhanced; a pure radio frequency excitation scheme is adopted, so that the task response rate can be improved; the thruster impedance matcher and the neutralizer impedance matcher are used as an independent single machine, so that the control complexity of the system can be reduced.

The application relates to the technical field of electric propulsion, in particular to a laser array hole forming method for a spherical carbon-carbon grid of an ion thruster, which comprises the following steps: step 1: fixing the spherical carbon-carbon grid on a laser processing workbench through a combined tool; step 2: scanning and fitting the spherical profile parameters of the carbon-carbon grid; step 3: carrying out fan-shaped partitioning on the spherical carbon-carbon grid, selecting one fan-shaped partitioning, and carrying out laser hole forming through a laser processing device; and step 4: rotating and arraying and splicing all information in the selected fan-shaped partitioning along an axial direction, and sequentially completing laser hole forming processing in the remaining fan-shaped partitionings. The application innovatively adopts the laser hole forming mode of fan-shaped partitioning and rotating arraying in combination with the special thin-walled curved multi-hole structure characteristics of the grid of the ion thruster and the carbon-carbon material characteristics, greatly simplifies the planning of the laser processing track, simultaneously, can eliminate the stepping error, and effectively guarantees the position precision of the grid holes.

To provide ion thruster systems for spacecraft, and more particularly, to an integrated ion thruster unit that may be configured to accommodate payload envelope dimensions associated with a spacecraft.SOLUTION: An integrated ion thruster unit for a spacecraft can include a unit housing including a thrust face, and a plurality of tiles arranged in an array on the thrust face. Each of the tiles can include an emitter and an extractor configured to provide a reference voltage with respect to the emitter. The emitter can include a plurality of tips configured to emit ions in a thrust direction from an ionic liquid propellant in response to an applied voltage.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Disclosed is an ion source, in particular an ion propeller for propelling a spacecraft, comprising: a reservoir (2) for a liquid metal (3); an emitter (4) having a central axis (C) and in fluid communication with the reservoir (2) for emitting ions (5) of the liquid metal (3) drawn from the reservoir (2); an annular extractor (6) coaxial with the emitter (4) and facing the emitter (4) for accelerating the separation of the ions (5); a voltage source (7) for effecting the emission and acceleration; and a chassis (10) on which the reservoir (2), the emitter (4) and the extractor (6) are mounted, wherein the extractor (6) has a structure (14) on a side (15) facing the emitter (4) configured to absorb the liquid metal (3) by capillary forces. Also disclosed is a method (21) for operating an ion source (1).

The present application relates to the field of spacecraft technology, and more specifically, to a divergent field plasma source grid assembly, comprising a grid mounting ring, a ceramic ring, an insulating assembly, and a grid, wherein: the grid mounting ring, the ceramic ring, and the grid are all annular boss structures; the grid is fixed to the grid mounting ring through an insulating assembly; the ceramic ring is arranged between the grid mounting ring and the grid; the grid mounting ring, the ceramic ring, and the grid are coaxially mounted. The present application achieves an insulated grid installation by providing a ceramic ring and an insulating assembly, and can switch the plasma source operating mode by changing the grid potential according to the satellite's electrification status, thereby more accurately and quickly controlling the satellite potential; compared to traditional divergent field ion thruster grid assemblies, the grid is not only insulated, but the bolts connecting and fixing the grid are installed outside the discharge chamber to prevent the bolt assembly from being sputtered inside the discharge chamber, which would cause contamination of components such as the grid and cathode, and damage to the bolt threads due to sputtering, making replacement difficult.

The invention relates to the technical field of spaceflight electric propulsion, in particular to a high-emissivity ion thruster discharge chamber anode cylinder which comprises an anode cylinder body, topological protruding ribs, dot matrix protruding structures and a micro-arc oxidation coating, the anode cylinder body is an anode of an ion thruster, and the whole anode cylinder body is of a thin-wall rotary body structure; the topological convex ribs are distributed on the outer surface of the anode cylinder body in a criss-cross manner; the dot matrix bulge structures are distributed on the outer surface of the anode cylinder body and are positioned in areas between the adjacent staggered topological bulge ribs; and the micro-arc oxidation coating is coated on the outer surfaces of the topological convex ribs and the dot matrix convex structures. The micro convex prismatic table and convex rib structures are designed on the outer surface of the anode cylinder of the discharge chamber, so that the heat dissipation area of the anode cylinder is increased, and meanwhile, the outer surface of the anode cylinder is coated with the micro-arc oxidation coating with high emissivity, so that the heat transfer efficiency of the whole discharge chamber is improved, and the temperature of the anode cylinder of the discharge chamber when the ion thruster works is effectively reduced.

The invention relates to a cusped magnetic field configuration-based direct-current ion thruster device, and relates to the field of ion thrusters, the cusped magnetic field configuration-based direct-current ion thruster device comprises a shell, a tungsten filament cathode, an inner magnetic ring, an outer magnetic ring, an upstream anode and a radial anode, and the outer magnetic ring and the inner magnetic ring are fixed on the side surface of a discharge chamber to establish cusped magnetic field configuration to restrain plasma; the axial gas distributor serves as an upstream anode, the radial gas distributor serves as a radial gas supply anode, electrons can move from a tungsten filament cathode to the upstream anode or the radial gas supply anode under the action of an electric field, and in the process, the electrons are captured by a cusped magnetic field and then generate ionization collision with gaseous working medium atoms to generate ions; according to the structure of the thruster, electrons in the discharge chamber are distributed more uniformly, uniform ionization of working medium gas atoms in the discharge chamber is achieved, and the thruster has the technical advantages of being high in ionization efficiency and large in thrust adjusting range.

The invention specifically discloses an ion thruster acceleration grid probability life evaluation method based on coupling competitive failure, and relates to the technical field of aerospace propulsion system life evaluation. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, obtaining deterministic parameters and random parameters of a thruster acceleration grid assembly; then based on an ion sputtering corrosion theory, considering material loss caused by charge exchange ion bombardment of the acceleration gate, and establishing a coupling corrosion model of the thickness and aperture of the acceleration gate; thirdly, constructing a competitive failure model, and realizing numerical solution of competitive failure life by dynamically iterating a corrosion state and a failure criterion; and finally, independently repeated random sampling is carried out based on probability distribution of random parameters, the random sampling is substituted into the competitive failure model to obtain an acceleration grid simulation life sample set, and statistical analysis is carried out on the life sample set to obtain a probability life evaluation result. The method solves the problem of errors caused by independent modeling of structural failure and electronic reflux failure in the prior art, and is helpful for reducing the system operation risk and improving the reliability of a spacecraft.

The present application relates to the field of aerospace electric propulsion technology, and more specifically, to an ion electric propulsion waste material induced beam scintillation device, comprising a grid system, a ceramic support ring, an inhalation hole, a placement tank, a control valve, a high-pressure gas nozzle, a gas cylinder, and a pipeline, wherein: the grid system is arranged at the outlet end of the ion thruster; the ceramic support ring is arranged at the edge of the three grids of the grid system; the inhalation hole is arranged directly above the ceramic support ring; the placement tank is connected to the inhalation hole; the gas cylinder is a pressure xenon gas cylinder, which is respectively connected to the placement tank and the high-pressure gas nozzle through a control valve and a pipeline; the high-pressure gas nozzle includes a left high-pressure gas nozzle, a right high-pressure gas nozzle, and a bottom high-pressure gas nozzle; and the pipeline is a stainless steel metal pipeline. The present application realizes the random and irregular movement of metal waste material debris between the grid systems on the ground, providing an engineering feasible experimental device for ground-based simulation of waste material induced beam scintillation under the influence of space microgravity.

The application provides an ion thruster array arc light detection system and method based on OpenCV, which comprises a vacuum chamber, a metal test plate arranged in the vacuum chamber and an annular microcathode ion thruster array, an interface and an observation window arranged on the outer wall of the vacuum chamber, an industrial camera arranged outside the observation window through a mechanical clamp, one end of the annular microcathode ion thruster array connected with the interface, the other end of the interface connected with a matrix switching unit and a driving and control system, the matrix switching unit connected with a current probe and a voltage probe, the current probe and the voltage probe connected with a high-speed oscilloscope, and the high-speed oscilloscope, the driving and control system and the industrial camera connected with a computer. The ion thruster array arc light detection system and method based on OpenCV can comprehensively evaluate the working state of the ion thruster by using computer technology and OpenCV image detection technology and combining pulse voltage and current data.

The application belongs to the field of space electric propulsion, and particularly relates to a working medium-free cathode neutralization circuit for a microwave ion thruster; the circuit comprises an ion thruster, a bias power supply and a cathode power supply circuit; the ion thruster is used for coupling discharge to generate an ion plume, the cathode power supply circuit is used for releasing electrons to neutralize the ion plume generated by the ion thruster; the bias power supply is used for adjusting the potential difference between the cathode neutralization ion thruster; the positive electrode of the bias power supply is connected with the ion thruster, and the negative electrode of the bias power supply is connected with the cathode power supply circuit, so that high-precision neutralization of the ion plume of the thruster is realized, the problem of thrust eccentricity caused by insufficient neutralization precision of the ion plume of the thruster is solved, and the cathode life is improved.

The invention relates to the technical field of spacecraft propulsion, in particular to an ion thruster high-voltage cable withstand voltage performance test system and method, and the system comprises a vacuum device, an ion thruster, a high-voltage cable, a DC power supply, a stepping motor, and a discharge monitoring system. Wherein the vacuum equipment adopts a flange binding post to realize power supply connection inside and outside the equipment; the ion thruster is mounted in the vacuum equipment in an insulated mounting manner; the direct-current power supply is a variable voltage-stabilizing direct-current power supply and is mounted outside the vacuum equipment; the high-voltage cable comprises a first cable and a second cable; the middle area of the first cable is fixed on the stepping motor in an insulated mounting manner; and the discharge monitoring system is arranged in the vacuum equipment. According to the invention, safe and reliable loading of high-voltage cable power supply is realized in a manner of loading the screen grid voltage in a stepped manner, and the risk of misjudgment of the power supply performance of the high-voltage cable caused by ion beam current flickering in the high-voltage loading process is solved.

This application provides an atomic deposition apparatus suitable for ion sputtering experiments, including a sputtering product deposition module, a support and position adjustment module, a tilt adjustment module, and a target fixing and beam signal acquisition module. This application addresses the problem that existing atomic deposition apparatuses primarily measure the atomic deposition rate inside ion thruster discharge chambers or sputtering coating chambers, making it difficult to accurately control ion incident conditions and measure the spatial distribution of sputtering products. The target fixing and beam signal acquisition module is mounted on the tilt adjustment module and located within the sputtering product deposition module. It also utilizes the support and position adjustment module as a base placed at the bottom of the vacuum chamber, supporting and driving the other modules to move horizontally and / or vertically.

The application discloses an enhanced ion propulsion ship platform, which comprises a ship body, a rudder, an enhanced ion thruster and a high-pressure generating module. A plurality of enhanced ion thrusters are coaxially connected in series through connecting rods in a propulsion direction and are installed on a tail deck of the ship body. The enhanced ion thruster comprises an acceleration duct, two groups of supports are installed in the acceleration duct, each group of supports comprises two electrode supports, first electrodes in the form of sheets are uniformly arranged on the electrode supports close to the connecting rods, and second electrodes in the form of sharp shapes are uniformly arranged on the electrode supports on the other side. The number of the enhanced ion thrusters to be connected and the electrode voltage required are controlled to meet the required thrust of the ship at different speeds. The particle swarm algorithm is used to determine the minimum ship resistance, and the best longitudinal inflow angle and outflow angle are obtained to realize the efficient operation of the low-speed ship platform. The application has the advantages of simple structure, economy, lightness, easy popularization and suitability for various water surface low-speed operation systems.

The application relates to the field of aerospace measurement technology, in particular to an ion thruster current density three-dimensional cloud map dynamic reconstruction system and method.The system comprises a vacuum cabin, a data acquisition and display module, a control module, an ion thruster, a support frame, a Faraday probe array, a moving mechanism, a multi-signal acquisition module, a measurement and control module and a data processing module, wherein the ion thruster is fixed at one end of the support frame through a support; the Faraday probe array is fixed at the other end of the support frame through the moving mechanism; the control module is connected with the data acquisition and display module and the ion thruster; the measurement and control module is connected with the data processing module and the multi-signal acquisition module, and the multi-signal acquisition module is connected with a switching cable box. The application adopts double linear interpolation to capture the changes in the cross section, combines linear interpolation to describe the gradual change between cross sections, the mathematical model is rigorous, the reconstructed field is smooth and continuous, the fidelity is significantly higher than that of a traditional method, and the inversion accuracy is high.

Disclosed is an electric propulsion system (110, 210) utilizing particles collected from atmosphere, the electric propulsion system having a first end (112) facing, when in use, incoming flow of particles (102, 202) and an exit aperture (252) at a second end (114) to eject accelerated particles to generate thrust, the electric propulsion system comprising an active intake module (220, 320A, 320B, 320N) having an opening (222, 322A, 322B, 322N), an active compression mechanism (224) and a first output (226); a guiding channel (230, 330) comprising a splitter (332, 432); the ion thruster; and the cathode.

The invention, which belongs to the technical field of the ion thruster, provides a multi-segment grid electrode low-divergence beam assembly of a miniature direct-current ion thruster, comprising an outer acceleration grid electrode, an inner acceleration grid electrode and an insulating ring, the insulating ring is provided with a connecting hole, and the outer acceleration grid electrode is connected with the inner acceleration grid electrode. The outer acceleration grid and the inner acceleration grid are both provided with first connecting holes and second connecting holes corresponding to the connecting holes, the outer diameter of the insulating ring is the same as the inner diameter of the outer acceleration grid, and the inner diameter of the insulating ring is the same as the outer diameter of the inner acceleration grid. And the outer acceleration grid electrode is connected with the inner acceleration grid electrode through the insulating ring. By the adoption of the multi-section grid low-divergence beam assembly of the miniature direct-current ion thruster, the plume divergence angle can be restrained, and the performance of the thruster is improved.

The invention discloses an ion thruster acceleration gate downstream pit-groove corrosion morphology prediction method, which comprises the following steps: establishing a computational domain, and determining boundary conditions of the computational domain; ions are injected from the left boundary of the computational domain, charges carried by all the ions are mapped to grid nodes of the computational domain through a weight distribution method, and space charge density distribution is obtained; solving three-dimensional potential distribution and three-dimensional electric field distribution in a computational domain based on space charge density distribution and set boundary conditions; pushing the ions to move based on the three-dimensional electric field distribution, and updating the positions and speeds of all the ions; simulating a charge exchange collision process of ions and neutral atoms based on the updated ion position and speed, and updating the state of the collided ions; counting information of charge exchange ions impacting the downstream surface of the acceleration gate within a set time; and calculating the three-dimensional corrosion morphology of the downstream surface of the acceleration gate based on charge exchange ion information in combination with a sputtering yield model and gate material attributes.

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of space electric propulsion of spacecrafts, and discloses a thrust-quantitatively-controllable and self-neutralizable Kaufman ion thruster and a use method thereof. The Kaufman ion thruster includes a discharge chamber, a central cathode, a gas supply assembly, a steel magnetic assembly, an insulating barrier and a grid system, wherein the central cathode is coaxially inserted in the center of a front panel; the gas supply assembly includes an electronegative working substance gas source, a conventional working substance gas source, N electronegative working medium gas supply pipes and N working medium gas supply pipes; the insulating barrier includes a central connecting rod and 2N fins. Self-neutralization can be achieved without the need of neutralizers. In addition, the center-oriented thrust modes can be used for spacecraft orbit control; and the eccentric thrust mode can be used for spacecraft attitude adjustment.

The invention relates to an efficient miniature ion thruster based on microwave ionization enhancement, and relates to the field of ion thrusters, a permanent magnet group comprises a plurality of annular permanent magnets which are distributed at intervals along the axis direction of a shell, and cusped magnetic fields are formed between adjacent permanent magnets to reduce the loss of plasmas on the wall surface; the tungsten filament cathode is fixedly connected to the middle of one side of the shell and the axis coincides with the axis of the shell; the annular anode is fixedly connected in the shell on the periphery of the tungsten filament cathode, the axis of the anode coincides with the axis of the tungsten filament cathode, and the gas supply assembly is fixedly connected to the shell on one side of the anode so as to supply a gaseous propellant into the shell; the device has the advantages that microwave energy coupling, efficient magnetic confinement of a cusped magnetic field, ionization area expansion and high specific impulse acceleration of a grid system are combined, and therefore efficient ionization and high specific impulse acceleration of low-density working medium gas can be achieved under the low-power condition; the device has the advantages of compact structure, high efficiency and high specific impulse.

The present invention discloses a method for predicting the evolution of erosion morphology of an ion thruster grid, comprising: obtaining the size of a single-hole beam downstream of an accelerating grid through experimental measurement; selecting a pair of screen grids and an accelerating grid hole as objects of numerical simulation research; obtaining an initial plasma density upstream of the screen grid based on a relationship between beam current and plasma density upstream of the screen grid; obtaining a Debye length based on upstream plasma density calculation and selecting a size of a simulation grid; obtaining a neutral gas density at each grid node in a simulation area based on a neutral gas collision model; establishing a grid corrosion morphology evolution model, starting beam calculation, simulating and obtaining the single-hole beam size, performing feedback adjustment based on experimental values, and determining a final upstream ion density; processing the collision process between ions and the grid, starting corrosion calculation, and obtaining an accurate grid corrosion rate; reducing grid mass based on the corrosion rate, eliminating grid nodes, and realizing a change in the grid morphology.

The invention relates to the technical field of ion thrusters, in particular to a backflow pollution protection device for a grid system of a direct-current ion thruster. The device comprises a protective baffle, an electromagnetic driving device, a driving connecting rod, a controller, a displacement sensor and a working condition acquisition unit, the displacement sensor is used for collecting position information of the protective baffle, the working condition collecting unit is used for collecting the working condition of the direct current ion thruster, and the controller is used for receiving the position information and the working condition and determining the target position of the protective baffle according to the working condition. The controller is further used for sending an electric signal to the electromagnetic driving device according to the position signal and the target position so as to control the electromagnetic driving device to drive the protective baffle to the target position. The embodiment of the invention provides a backflow pollution protection device for a grid system of a direct-current ion thruster. The backflow pollution protection device can prevent particles from precipitating between a grid assembly and a neutralizer.

The present invention provides a space propulsion system and a propulsion method thereof. The space propulsion system serves as a propulsion system for a very low orbit satellite or a planetary probe with an atmosphere. The space propulsion system includes an air intake device, a gas supply pipeline, and a nanowire array ion thruster, wherein: the air intake device collects the gas in the orbit as a propellant; the gas is supplied to the nanowire array ion thruster by the gas supply pipeline, ionized by the strong electric field of the nanowire array ion thruster, and accelerated and ejected by the strong electric field to generate thrust; the material of the nanowire array ion thruster is an oxide.

The invention relates to a compact air purification device based on ion thruster technology During operation, the ion thruster generates ozone (O₃) as a byproduct of oxygen ionization. This ozone is directed into a reaction chamber where it oxidizes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other airborne pollutants. The system eliminates the need for external fans or filters by using the natural airflow created by the thruster itself. Key components include an ionization chamber, a grounded copper ring, a high-voltage accelerator grid, and a downstream reaction zone. The device operates effectively in low-humidity environments, where ozone remains stable and highly reactive. This integration of aerospace propulsion and environmental chemistry offers a novel, energy-efficient solution for air treatment in enclosed or emergency settings. The invention is suitable for use in homes, laboratories, industrial spaces, and mobile purification units.