PREHEAT: Propellant Regenerative Energy for High-power Electric Adiabatic Thrusters

The goal of many in the space industry is to make life interplanetary but there is a gap between where we are now and where we need to be to meet that goal. While there are various technologies currently being pursued to close this gap, nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) and high-power electric propulsion using large solar arrays (SEP) have been presented as viable options. Yet even with their potential advantages, this technology has significant developmental challenges that pose a risk to technological maturity. NEP and SEP require high-power electric propulsion thrusters that must endure high temperatures when operated at such high powers. This heat produced is transmitted through the channel walls and can degrade the thruster operation therefore limiting its performance. Solutions have been explored with the use of heat sink devices and water cooling, yet little research currently exists for cooling the thruster while in flight. In chemical liquid rocket engines, this problem is effectively addressed via regenerative cooling where fluid, usually the fuel, flows through manufactured channels around the outside of the combustion chamber and nozzle. This allows the, usually cryogenic, fuel to cool down the chamber while heating the propellant before it is combusted in the chamber. The overall goal of my research is to develop a regenerative cooling approach that allows the thruster to operate adiabatically and reject all excess heat through propellant pre-conditioning. I propose to do this by first conducting a trade study on various propellants, heat sources in the thruster, cooling channel geometries, and materials. I will then design and simulate a 3D heat model of the thruster, channel geometry, and propellant in ANSYS. Finally, I will leverage additive manufacturing to prototype embedded cooling channels and test the performance with both simulated heat sources and a range of propellants in a vacuum chamber.

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