Status of the Extended Life Test of the Deep Space 1 Flight Spare Ion Engine After 30,000 Hours of Operation

The extended life test (ELT) of the Deep Space 1 (DS1) spare flight ion thruster (FT2) was voluntarily terminated June 26th 2003. The test was started in Cotober of 1998, just prior to the launch of the DS1 spacecraft, with the primary purpose of determining the ultimate service life capability of the NASA 30-cm-ion thruster technology.

[1]  R. Jahn,et al.  Physics of Electric Propulsion , 1968 .

[2]  J. Polk,et al.  In Situ, Time-Resolved Accelerator Grid Erosion Measurements , 1998 .

[3]  Michael J. Patterson,et al.  Thermographic investigation of 3.2 mm diameter orificed hollow cathodes , 1998 .

[4]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Performance of the NSTAR ion propulsion system on the Deep Space One mission , 2001 .

[5]  John R. Anderson,et al.  An overview of the results from an 8200 hour wear test of the NSTAR ion thruster , 1999 .

[6]  Roger M. Myers,et al.  A 100 Hour Wear Test of the NASA NSTAR Ion Thruster , 1996 .

[7]  Michael J. Patterson,et al.  Demonstration of the NSTAR ion propulsion system on the Deep Space One mission , 2001 .

[8]  Gani B. Ganapathi,et al.  ANA 99-2273 Post-Launch Performance Characterization of the Xenon Feed -System on Deep Space One , 1999 .

[9]  J. E. Polk,et al.  The Effect of Engine Wear on Performance in the NSTAR 8000 Hour Ion Engine Endurance Test , 1997 .

[10]  Michael J. Patterson,et al.  Design and fabrication of a flight model 2.3 kW ion thruster for the Deep Space 1 Mission , 1998 .

[11]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Results of an On-Going Long Duration Ground Test of the DS1 Flight Spare Engine , 1999 .

[12]  James E. Polk,et al.  Performance characteristics of the NSTAR ion thruster during an on-going long duration ground test , 2000, 2000 IEEE Aerospace Conference. Proceedings (Cat. No.00TH8484).

[13]  V. K. Rawlin,et al.  Operation of the J-series thruster using inert gas , 1982 .

[14]  James E. Polk,et al.  In-flight performance of the NSTAR ion propulsion system on the Deep Space One mission , 2000, 2000 IEEE Aerospace Conference. Proceedings (Cat. No.00TH8484).

[15]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Performance characteristics of the deep space 1 flight spare ion thruster long duration test, the first 21,300 hours of operation , 2002 .

[16]  Michael J. Patterson,et al.  NASA 30 Cm Ion Thruster Development Status , 1994 .

[17]  Joseph Wang,et al.  Three-Dimensional Particle Simulations of NSTAR Ion Optics , 2001 .