Propellant Mass Scaling and Decoupling and Improved Plasma Coupling in a Pulsed Inductive Thruster

Two methods of improving the life and efficiency of the Pulsed Inductive Thruster

(PIT) have been investigated. The first is a trade study of available switches to

determine the best device to implement in the PIT design. The second is the design

of a coil to improve coupling between the accelerator coil and the plasma. Experiments

were done with both permanent and electromagnets to investigate the feasibility of

implementing a modified Halbach array within the PIT to promote better plasma

coupling and decrease the unused space within the thruster. This array proved to

promote more complete coupling on the edges of the coil where it had been weak in

previous studies. Numerical analysis was done to predict the performance of a PIT

that utilized each suggested switch type. This model utilized the Alfven velocity to

determine the critical mass and energy of these theoretical thrusters.