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Self-Healing Field-Emission Neutralizers for Electric Propulsion

Award Information
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Branch: N/A
Contract: NNX11CF48P
Agency Tracking Number: 105697
Amount: $99,986.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: S3.04
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2010
Award Year: 2011
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2011-02-18
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2011-09-29
Small Business Information
2521 7 Mile Point Rd
Allouez, MI 49805-6969
United States
DUNS: 003583429
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Jason Makela
 Principal Investigator
 (906) 487-1854
 jmakela@aerophysicsinc.com
Business Contact
 Lyon King
Title: Business Official
Phone: (906) 370-2376
Email: brad.king@aerophysicsinc.com
Research Institution
 Stub
Abstract

Electric propulsion (EP) thrusters have the potential to enhance or enable Discovery-class missions. However, a significant challenge in scaling micro (<100 W) EP devices up as well as scaling macro (> 1 kW) EP devices down is the lack of a compatible neutralizer technology in the meso scale (<1 kW). Traditionally, the technology used for spacecraft neutralization has been the hollow cathode, though hollow cathodes require an unsatisfactory fraction of a propulsion system's propellant and power in the meso-scale regime. In fact, they require such a large amount of propellant and power that system efficiency is reduced by 50-100%. In addition, using a hollow cathode causes undesirable specific impulse reduction.The most promising technology for meso-scale neutralizers is field emission (FE), which requires the use of nano-scale sharp emitters and high electric fields to establish a beam of electrons. The drawback of FE devices is that the nano-scale emitters become damaged when operated in elevated pressure environments (10-5 Torr), causing catastrophic failure. The research proposed here is to develop field-emission cathodes for use in meso-scale EP that eliminate tip degradation not through attempts to minimize tip wear, but instead by incorporating self-assembling nanostructures that can repeatedly re-generate damaged emitter tips in space and fully restore the functionality of a damaged or degraded cathode. The procedure is the equivalent of having a MEMS fabrication and repair lab on-board the spacecraft.

The re-generable emitters proposed here have been successfully demonstrated in the laboratory in work by Makela, et. al. dating back to 2007. The re-generable neutralizers could enable highly efficient, high-Isp, low-mass propulsion systems operating between a few Watts and 1 kW by either scaling existing micro technologies up or scaling existing macro technologies down.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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