High Power Helicon (HPH) Plasma Thruster



Cast of Characters:

Tim Ziemba |  Robert M. Winglee | J. Slough | Louis Giersch |




HPH operation The high power helicon is a state of the art electrodeless plasma thruster. This mean that issues associated with erosion of electrode by the plasma is eliminated. The plasma itself is generated by high power radio frequency waves that allow substantial felixbility in operational characteristics. it is also very much small than other plasma thruster, which adds to to versatility.

new chamber

HPH is presently undergoing rigorously testing for performanace optimization. The testing to date shows excellent power and gas efficiency over two orders of magnitude in power and gas flow rate.
Video clip (14 Mbytes) of HPH under operation with argon.






RISE Main Page | Department Space Physics |  Propulsion Home page

Last modified: Tue July 27 11:07:46 PDT 2004