Patent ID: 9242747
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: B64G,F03H,H05H

Claim Text:
1. An electrothermal satellite thrust propulsion system for operating in the vacuum of space comprising: a storage reservoir holding a pressurized gaseous or liquid propellant; a controlled propellant valve coupled to the storage reservoir for controlling the release of propellant vapor into a plenum; a duct connecting the plenum and at least one tubular microcavity, allowing propellant vapor to flow from the plenum into the at least one tubular microcavity at a velocity which is subsonic, and wherein the at least one tubular microcavity has a diameter of 50-2000 microns; an alternating current in the frequency range of 20 kHz to 27 MHz being in communication with a pair of discharge initiation electrodes and pair of sustaining discharge electrodes and being further coupled to the at least one tubular microcavity, for which power is supplied to heat the propellant vapor by means of a normal or abnormal glow discharge into a weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma to create a maximum heavy particle temperature of 500-2000 K, and wherein increasing a temperature of the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma through the at least one tubular microcavity increases a velocity of the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma as it discharges out of the at least one microcavity, and wherein the pair of discharge initiation electrodes are capacitively coupled to the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma and wherein the pair of sustaining discharge electrodes are either (i) both capacitively coupled to the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma, (ii) both directly coupled to the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma, or (iii) one of the sustaining discharge electrodes is capacitively coupled to the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma and the other sustaining discharge electrode is directly coupled to the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma; and a supersonic expansion nozzle, for operating in the vacuum of space, that is fed the weakly-ionized non-equilibrium flowing plasma creating a supersonic jet producing thrust.