Harness Design of Electric Propulsion Systems

Primary energy source for thrust requirements for space missions have been majorly fulfilled using chemical energy as the primary energy source. A few but increasing number of missions have been using an electrical source of energy to create thrust. Thrusters primarily using electrical energy are attractive because they can provide the same total impulse for less fuel than chemical thrusters. This was attempted in two spacecraft. One with two Keldysh, second satellite launched with 4 Keldysh thrusters(18mN) capacity. The current demonstration with higher power thrusters, is a novel technology demonstration details of which has been discussed in the paper.