JPH116473A - Dc arc thrustor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To exhibit sufficient performance regardless of fluctuation of feed pressure of propellant by providing a fluid resistor for unifying flow of the propellant on the outlet side of a flow rate regulating valve while providing the flow rate regulating valve on the way of a propellant feed flow passage part for feeding the propellant from a propellant feed source to an arc thrustor main body. SOLUTION: In the case where a DC arc thrustor used for position control or the like of an artificial satellite or the like is driven, pressure of a propellant feed source 14 is detected by a pressure detector 23 provided on the propellant feed source 14, an opening/closing command signal 25 of a flow rate regulating valve 22 is found out by a control device 26 on the basis of the pressure detecting signal 24, and a flow rate regulating valve 22 is opened/closed intermittently. The flow rate of propellant 4 is held to a desired flow rate regardless of pressure of the propellant feed source 14, and the performance of the DC arc thrustor is sufficiently exhibited even if the propellant feed source 14 having small capacity is used. The propellant 4 passed the flow rate regulating valve 22 unifies a flow rate by a fluid resistor 21, and the fluctuation of a flow rate caused by intermittent motion of the flow rate regulating valve 22 is suppressed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a direct current arc thruster, and more particularly, to a direct current arc thruster capable of exhibiting sufficient performance irrespective of fluctuations in the supply pressure of a propellant. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art DC arc thrusters are used to control the orbit and attitude of artificial satellites and the like.

[0003] The DC arc thruster is as shown in FIG.

That is, the arc thruster main body 3 is attached to the artificial satellite main body 1 via the bracket 2, and a nozzle 5 for injecting a propellant 4 or the like is locked at one end of the arc thruster main body 3. 3 and nozzle 5
Thus, the anode 6 is constituted.

A cathode rod 8 is disposed at the inner axial position of the arc thruster main body 3 so that the tip thereof is located in a space 7 formed in the nozzle 5. An insulating material 9 is disposed between the insulating material 9 and the insulating material 9.

The other end of the arc thruster main body 3 is connected to the anode 6 via a connector 10 and a power supply cable 11.
Discharge power supply 1 for supplying power to the cathode rod 8
2 is connected.

Further, a propellant supply passage 13 for guiding the propellant 4 and the like to the space 7 is provided inside the arc thruster main body 3.
And a propellant supply path 14, a propellant supply source 14, a fluid resistor 15 composed of multi-stage orifices and functioning as a flow rate adjusting mechanism, and a propellant valve 16 for ON-OFF provided in two stages. , 17, a thermal barrier 18, and a propellant supply channel section 20 including a gas generator 19 containing a catalyst layer for decomposing the propellant 4.

According to this configuration, the main discharge power supply device 1
By supplying power to the anode 6 and the cathode rod 8 from the power supply 2 via the power supply cable 11 and the connector 10, an arc discharge is generated between the nozzle 5 and the tip of the cathode rod 8.

In this state, the propellant 4 of the propellant supply source 14 is opened by opening the propellant valves 16 and 17 provided in two stages to ensure the operation, so that the propellant supply flow path 20 and Is supplied to the space 7 via the propellant supply path 13.

At this time, the flow rate of the propellant 4 is adjusted by the fluid resistor 15 composed of multi-stage orifices, and the propellant 4 is decomposed by the catalyst layer in the gas generator 19, and is vaporized by decomposition and expanded in volume. The propellant 4 is sent to the nozzle 5 of the arc thruster main body 3 via the propellant supply path 13.

At this time, since the decomposition of the propellant 4 in the gas generator 19 is an exothermic reaction, the heat generated by the decomposition is not so transmitted to the propellant valves 16 and 17 and the fluid resistor 15 that the heat is generated. Barrier 18 blocks heat.

Then, the energy of the arc discharge causes the space 7
The propellant 4 inside is heated, and the propellant 4 thus heated
Is sprayed from the nozzle 5 to reduce the amount of propellant 4
Thus, orbit control and attitude control of an artificial satellite or the like can be efficiently performed.

[0013]

However, the above-mentioned conventional DC arc thruster has the following problems.

That is, since the DC arc thruster is operated by a small amount of the propellant 4,
The allowable range for the flow rate is narrow.

On the other hand, a propellant supply source 1 for supplying a propellant 4
4, the pressure of the internal propellant 4 is gradually reduced as the propellant 4 is used, but when the capacity of the propellant supply source 14 is large, the propellant supply by using the propellant 4 is performed. The decrease in the pressure of the propellant supply 14 due to the use of the propellant 4 is large when the volume of the propellant supply 14 is small. There is a tendency.

However, due to strict weight restrictions in artificial satellites and the like, a tank with an excessively large capacity cannot be mounted as the propellant supply source 14, but rather a small tank having a necessary minimum capacity is mounted. Would be desirable.

Then, as described above, the small-capacity propellant supply source 14 has a large pressure reduction degree, that is,
Since the pressure fluctuation is large, in the mechanism as shown in FIG. 2, the DC arc thruster immediately deviates from the pressure range that matches the allowable range of the propellant flow rate, and the DC arc thruster cannot exhibit sufficient performance. I will.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a DC arc thruster capable of exhibiting sufficient performance irrespective of fluctuations in the propellant supply pressure.

[0019]

According to the present invention, a flow rate adjusting valve 22 is provided in the middle of a propellant supply flow path section 20 for feeding a propellant 4 from a propellant supply source 14 to an arc thruster main body 3. According to a DC arc thruster, a fluid resistor 21 capable of equalizing the flow of the propellant 4 is provided on the outlet side of the valve 22.

In this case, a pressure detector 23 is provided in the propellant supply source 14, and a control device 26 for sending an opening / closing command signal 25 to the flow regulating valve 22 based on a pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23 is provided. You may do it.

According to the above means, the following effects can be obtained.

Pressure detector 23 provided in propellant supply source 14
Detects the pressure of the propellant supply source 14, a pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23 is sent to the control device 26, and based on the pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23, the control device 26 An opening / closing command signal 25 is sent to 22 to open and close the flow control valve 22.

As a result, when the pressure of the propellant supply source 14 is high, the opening time of the flow control valve 22 is adjusted to be short, and when the pressure of the propellant supply source 14 becomes low, The opening time of the flow control valve 22 is adjusted to be long.

Thus, the flow rate of the propellant 4 can be set to a desired flow rate irrespective of the pressure of the propellant supply source 14, and even if a small-capacity propellant supply source 14 having a large pressure fluctuation is used. Thus, the performance of the DC arc thruster can be sufficiently exhibited.

The propellant 4 passing through the flow control valve 22
The flow resistance of the fluid resistor 21 is made uniform by a slight resistance, and the fluctuation caused by the intermittent operation of the flow control valve 22 is eliminated.

[0026]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.

Since the basic structure of the DC arc thruster is the same as that of FIG. 2, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

In the present invention, in order to open and close the propellant supply flow path section 20, the fluid resistor 21 upstream of the propellant valves 16 and 17 provided in two stages is used to make the flow rate of the propellant 4 uniform. And the fluid resistance 21
A flow control valve 22 that can be opened and closed intermittently is provided on the upstream side.

Then, the pressure detector 2 is connected to the propellant supply source 14.
3 and a control device 26 for sending an open / close command signal 25 to the flow control valve 22 based on the pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23.

Next, the operation will be described.

The basic operation of the DC arc thruster is the same as that shown in FIG.

According to the present invention, the pressure detector 23 provided in the propellant supply source 14 detects the pressure of the propellant supply source 14, and the pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23 is sent to the control device 26. The device 26 sends an open / close command signal 25 to the flow control valve 22 based on the pressure detection signal 24 from the pressure detector 23 to open and close the flow control valve 22 intermittently.

As a result, when the pressure of the propellant supply source 14 is high, the flow control valve 22 is adjusted so that the open time and the close time of the flow control valve 22 are short, and the pressure of the propellant supply source 14 is low. If it becomes, the open time of the flow control valve 22 is long,
It is adjusted to shorten the closing time.

Thus, the flow rate of the propellant 4 can be set to a desired flow rate irrespective of the pressure of the propellant supply source 14, and even if a small-capacity propellant supply source 14 having a large pressure fluctuation is used. Thus, the performance of the DC arc thruster can be sufficiently exhibited.

The propellant 4 passing through the flow control valve 22
The flow rate is made uniform by a slight resistance in the fluid resistor 21, and the fluctuation of the flow rate due to the intermittent operation of the flow rate adjusting valve 22 is eliminated.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0038]

As described above, according to the DC arc thruster of the present invention, an excellent effect that sufficient performance can be exhibited irrespective of fluctuations in the supply pressure of the propellant can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side sectional view of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 Arc thruster main body 4 Propellant 14 Propellant supply source 20 Propellant supply flow path 21 Fluid resistor 22 Flow rate regulating valve 23 Pressure detector 24 Pressure detection signal 25 Opening / closing command signal 26 Control device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A flow control valve (22) is provided in the middle of a propellant supply passage (20) for supplying a propellant (4) from a propellant supply source (14) to an arc thruster body (3). A DC arc thruster comprising a fluid resistor (21) capable of equalizing the flow of a propellant (4) at an outlet side of a flow control valve (22). 2. A pressure sensor (2) connected to a propellant supply source (14).
3. The control device according to claim 1, further comprising a control device for transmitting an open / close command signal to the flow control valve based on the pressure detection signal from the pressure detector. DC arc thruster.