Effect of facility background gases on internal erosion of the 30-cm Hg ion thruster

One life limiting phenomenon of mercury bombardment thrusters is sputtering erosion of the upstream side of the molybdenum screen grid by discharge chamber ions. Data were obtained which revealed that the screen grid erosion was very sensitive to the partial pressure of certain background gases in the space simulation vacuum facility. The results of tests conducted to evaluate this effect are presented. An estimate of the screen grid erosion in space was made which showed that adequate lifetime for proposed missions exists.

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