A Hall thruster is powering many of the satellites moving around Earth right now . It need 100 million ( yes , you study that right , 100 million ) time less fuel than chemical thrusters . But it was never remotely sturdy enough to get anything to Mars — until now .
Typical chemical thrusters are moderately simple . Fuel combusts , gases shoot one way , and a rocket shoots the other manner .
Ion thrustersare a little dissimilar . They control accuse electrode , an anode and a cathode , and allow for positively excite ions to charge from the anode to the cathode . Thanks to momentum , the ion will “ overshoot ” the cathode . Under regular circumstance they ’d be sucked back , but once they ’ve reset the cathode , they’re strike by a beam of electrons , knock off them and allowing them to go on their way without incumbrance from the agitate cathode . So the neutralized atoms shoot one mode , and the rocket pip another .
This was a good system , but it call for a forcible anode and cathode . Hall thrusters are a trivial different . They work the elbow room regular ion thrusters do , but instead of a physical cathode , they have avirtual cathode .
Electrons can be entrap in blank space with a magnetic field . Put the magnetic field in front of the anode and you’re able to keep the electrons away . Get enough of those together , and they make a virtual electrode . Because the ion are so much heavy than the negatron , they ’re not affect by the magnetic discipline , so the ions buck towards the negatron like they ’re a even cathode , and then travel by through , where they ’re neutralize . This is a Hall thruster , a subway with a physical anode at one ending , a cloud of electrons serve as an cathode at the other end , and a bunch of ion soar upwards through .
Hall thruster are great technology , but they ’re not quite dependable enough for long space mission . The problem is n’t the anode , cathode , or ion , but the container that they ’re in . The tube itself devote off negatron . It also gets hit by ions and degrades . All in all , people can get about 10,000 hours of use out of a Hall pusher , which is n’t nearly enough for deep space geographic expedition or heading out to Mars .
So scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research decide to polish off the underground . The first design ( above left ) was a failure . The ruby anode should be describe up on the wall let loose xenon . Instead it ’s in the magnetized battleground , allow electron to glom onto it , thin functioning .
The new design ( above right ) makes the small change which allows the anode to keep clean of the field . This one seems to crop . The team announced that , though they need to keep make changes , the functioning of the thruster is “ satisfactory . ” And it could “ pave the style towards the development of a high - efficiency wall - less Hall thruster . ” That pusher could significantly reduce the amount of fuel , and therefore weight , that a ballistic capsule needs to get around . And that makes a mission to Mars with such a thrusted invention more executable .
[ seed : Optimization of Wall - less Hall Thruster ]
PhysicsScience
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