Sert-I Mercury
Engine · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
NASA Cleveland electric/mercury rocket engine. Developed 1962-1964. 10 cm diameter mercury electron bombardment ion engine used on the first successful flight test of ion propulsion on a Scout X-4 launch vehicle.
The engine provided flow control via a boiler and a porous stainless steel plug. A hot tantalum wire was used as the discharge cathode. Beam and accelerator power supply voltages were 2500 V and 2000 V, respectively. The engine had a 1.4 kW power level with 28 mN of thrust at a specific impulse of about 4900 s. Ion beam neutralization was provided by a heated tantalum filament
Electrical Input Power: 1.40 kW.
Related
- Country
- USA
- Launch Vehicles
- Scout X-4
- Propellants
- Electric/Mercury
- Agency
- NASA Cleveland