Performance Experiment of Bi-Anode Magnetically Enhanced Vacuum Arc Thruster

A Bi-Anode magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster(Bi-Anode MVAT)providing 3 discharge modes was developed in order to prolong the vacuum arc thruster’s operational lifetime.Arc ignition test,comparison test of thrust performance under different discharge mode,verifications test of failures mode and thruster lifetime test have been carried.It is shown that the average conversion rate of external injected pulse energy to impulse bit of thruster is 1.7 μN·s/J for bi-anode discharge mode,and the continuous discharge at 10 Hz can be triggered up to 5.2×10⁶ pules which is 3 times of LVAT-1’s discharge pulses,and the failure caused by heat is the primary factors affecting the discharge lifetime for Bi-Anode MVAT.