Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Devices as an Advanced Electric Propulsion System

Abstract: Originally developed and used for fusion research purposes, an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device is introduced for space propulsion applications. It is described the working principle using Argon as a propellant and studying the hy- pothetical nuclear fusion scenario. It is also described a mathematical models used to define the physical characteristic of the IEC devices, including a 1D ion path, the IEC ion distribution function and three different electric potential models used to simulate the potential inside the discharge region. Glow discharge modes and specifically, the jet mode is described as a future electric propulsion application. It is calculated the Space Charge Effects for a concentric spheres on the experimental set-up and it is also given a description of the different grids designs with an original suggestion to improve the efficiency of the grid design using Voronoi diagrams. As a conclusion, it is explained why IEC devices seems to be an incomplete device and part of a bigger one, maybe, being a new of thruster.