Development of Electrojet Engines at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy

Аннотация

Among the achievements of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, the works on developing space electrojet engines hold a special place; they were carried out under the direct guidance of L.A. Artsimovich, A.M. Andrianov, P.M. Morozov, G.Ya. Shchepkin, S.P. Maksimov, A.I. Morozov, et al. from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s at the Plasma Research Department (later renamed as Plasma Physics Division). In 1964, the plasma attitude control system based on a pulsed plasma thruster for the Zond-2 automatic interplanetary station passed the functionality test. It was internationally the first application of an electrojet engine on a spacecraft. In 1972, for the first time in our country, an ion electrojet engine was tested in a near-earth orbit (aboard the Meteor meteorological satellite). It was a Zefir ion engine with volume ionization of the working medium. On the same satellite, the world’s first tests of a stationary plasma thruster were conducted: a correcting propulsion unit based on the Aeolus engine was tested. A practical problem was solved during the ~170 h of firing of the thruster: Meteor was transferred into an orbit close to a conditionally synchronous one. The development of models of electrojet engines is briefly described; the participants of these works are named; the prehistory of studies of the gas-discharge plasma and the propagation of ion and electron fluxes through electromagnetic fields in the processes of thermonuclear fusion and separation (isotope) technologies are touched upon; an extended reference list concerning the questions discussed in the paper (primarily including works of the Kurchatov Institute employees) is given. The presented material is of informational orientation and addressed to those interested in the history of scientific and technical developments in our country.