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This paper discusses progress achieved during a three-year internal Sandia National Laboratories Laboratory Directed Research and Development project, funded through the Department of Energy. This research was conducted as an adjunct research project on a parallel path with a NASA funded program called the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Program. While the preferred engine at that time, due to technological maturity was the Xenon Ion thruster, an engine with higher power density, better overall efficiency and less involved and complex power conditioning was desired. The Field Emission electric thruster embodies all of these favorable characteristics, including the fact that it is now baselined for the LISA pathfinder mission. However, at that time, the field emission thruster was being developed in only single and triple emitter configurations. Each of the emitters, in order to achieve long life and high overall electric to jet efficiency, was limited to about 10 μA of current. The results of this internal program and the progress made during this three-year internally funded Sandia National Laboratories design, development and test program are discussed herein. During this internal project, performed in collaboration with the Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf research, progress was made in theoretical design and modeling, emitter design and fabrication, extractor design and fabrication, to include individually addressable emitter/extractor units and many other major elements necessary to enable thruster operation. |
