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Prospects of use of electromagnetic railgun as plasma thruster for spacecrafts

Article  in  Acta Astronautica · February 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2017.12.035

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

Prospects of use of electromagnetic railgun as plasma thruster

for spacecrafts
S.A. Poniaev *, B.I. Reznikov, R.O. Kurakin, P.A. Popov, A.I. Sedov, Y.A. Shustrov, B.G. Zhukov
Ioffe Institute, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Estimation of a possibility to use an electromagnetic plasma railgun as a safe and reliable plasma thruster based on
Electromagnetic railgun calculations of the thrust force and specific impulse of a plasma jet flowing from an accelerator channel is pre-
Plasma thruster sented. Theoretical and experimental investigations of acceleration of a plasma armature in railguns filled with
Satellite engine inert gases (argon, xenon) carried out at Ioffe Institute are described.
Plasma acceleration
Magnetic field
Electric field

1. Introduction surface into the plasma armature m. _

There are many types of electromagnetic thrusters for spacecrafts,
such as Hall and electrospray thrusters, ion engines, pulsed plasma and
vacuum arc thrusters [1–8]. Among them are pulsed plasma dynamic
thrusters with an electromagnetic railgun configuration. The ampere
force acting on the plasma armature in the accelerators of this type ac-
celerates the gas located in the plasma armature. When the plasma is
accelerated, the mechanical facilities to which the channel is attached
receive an impulse in the direction opposite to that of the gas flow.
Depending on the ampere force, which is determined by the discharge
current, external magnetic field, and the initial gas pressure in the
channel, the velocity of the plasma outflow from the channel can exceed
that of chemical thrusters by an order of magnitude or more.
At present electromagnetic railguns are used in various fields of
technical physics as accelerators of plasma and solid bodies [9–11]. The
physical basis of their operation is the acceleration of a conductor
(plasma or a conducting solid body) with a current in the magnetic field
of the electrical circuit a part of which the conductor constitutes. The
circuit consists of a power source, two parallel conducting rail-electrodes
serving as motion guides, and a conductor that short-circuits the rails.
The main parameters of the railgun are the channel length l, width w and
height h, the time dependences of the discharge current IðtÞ and external
field BðtÞ, the inductance of the rails per unit length L' and the physical
quantities determining the dissipative factors that reduce the accelerated
object speed, i.e., the gas type in the channel and its initial pressure p1 ,
temperature T1 and the rate of intake of the erosion mass from the rail
The design of a railgun with a plasma armature and physical princi-
ples of its operation suggest that a device that generates a plasma jet at
the channel outlet can be used as a pulsed thruster. A railgun can be used
as a thruster in three ways. This is the generation of a reactive force by
releasing solids from the channel (pellets) and the generation of a reac-
tive force by an outflow of a plasma jet accelerated in vacuum or in a
channel filled with a gas. In the last two cases higher outflow rates can be
obtained. To estimate the applicability of the technology using an elec-
tromagnetic railgun as a thruster of solids (pellets), NASA conducted
special studies in 1981 [12]. As shown theoretically, such a system has
high characteristics in specific impulse and thrust, but it also has sig-
nificant drawbacks. First, ejection of pellets at a high speed (more than
13 km=s) can pose a danger to spacecrafts in the orbit. Second, such ve-
locities appreciably exceed the results achieved experimentally. There-
fore, it is difficult to implement such a configuration due to structural and
technical features despite the advantages it offers. If an electromagnetic
railgun with the plasma armature acceleration in vacuum is used, very
high velocities can be achieved (100  150 km=s) [13,14], however, the
ejected mass is about 1  2 mg, and the total thrust in the pulse is
 100  300 mN. At a pulse frequency of tens of Hertz, the total integral
thrust will be at a level of 1 mN.
Our idea was to use the railgun that accelerated the plasma armature
in a channel filled with a gas. Below we describe the experiment, the
results obtained, and estimate the specific impulse and thrust of the
plasma jet flowing out of the exit section of the railgun channel for
different discharge currents, external magnetic fields, and initial gas

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: serguei.poniaev@mail.ioffe.ru (S.A. Poniaev).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2017.12.035
Received 14 November 2017; Accepted 21 December 2017
Available online xxxx
0094-5765/© 2018 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: S.A. Poniaev, et al., Prospects of use of electromagnetic railgun as plasma thruster for spacecrafts, Acta Astronautica
(2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2017.12.035
S.A. Poniaev et al.
pressures (Ar, Xe) in the channel. The acceleration model of the plasma
armature [15] modified with due account of the results obtained in Refs.
[16,17] is used.
2. Experimental
In the experiments, an electromagnetic rail accelerator placed in a
special vacuum chamber equipped with a system for recording the
electrical parameters of the circuit and dynamic parameters of the gas
flow was used (Fig. 1). Lateral transparent dielectric walls of the railgun
channel made of Plexiglas allowed an optical detection of plasma
armature motion. A set of railgun channels with cross-sectional areas A
from 4 to 36 mm2 and lengths l from 250 to 500 mm were employed. The
inductance per unit channel length L' depended on the channel cross-
section. For example, for the cross-section A equal to 36 mm2, L' was
0:37 μH=m.
The vacuum chamber with the railgun inside it was filled with a gas
(argon, xenon) to operating pressure in the range of 25  500 Torr after
pumping to the fore vacuum. The current leads which were hermetically
sealed in the chamber flanges provided application of a current pulse of
up to 100 kA to the railgun electrodes. The energy storage device in the
Fig. 2. Oscilloscope traces of discharge current ðIÞ, voltage at the muzzle part
of the railgun channel (U), and magnetic field induction ðBÞ for the experi-
ment with Xenon at 30 Torr.
2
Acta Astronautica xxx (2017) 1–5
Fig. 1. Schematic of the experiment: Ub is the full voltage at
the railgun input, Um is the voltage at the muzzle.
form of an LC-line was connected to the railgun through an ignitron
switch and formed a trapezoidal current pulse with an almost flat top on
the load. The discharge current through the railgun was varied by
changing the charging voltage on the LC-line capacitors in the range
U0 ¼ 0:8  4:5 kV, its amplitude reached 60  80 kA in our experiments.
The discharge was initiated by a high-voltage spark applied to a thin
auxiliary electrode in the breech part of the railgun channel simulta-
neously with the application of voltage from the energy storage device to
the railgun rails.
Since the internal resistance of the energy storage device (LC-line)
was appreciably higher than the total railgun channel and plasma
armature resistance, the discharge current was nearly independent of the
gas type, its initial pressure, and the plasma armature velocity in the
channel. In the experiment, measurements of the discharge current in the
rails-electrodes (by the Rogovsky belt), the induction of the external
magnetic field, and the potential difference between the rails in the
railgun channel muzzle were carried out (Fig. 2), and streak pictures of
luminosity propagation in the railgun channel were taken (Fig. 3). It can
be seen from Fig. 3 that there is no pronounced boundary between the
shock-compressed layer and the plasma armature, and the gas luminosity
onset is observed immediately after the shock wave.
The shock-wave velocity was determined by the laser beam cutoff in
two channel cross-sections at distances of 80 mm and 5 mm from the
muzzle. Fig. 4 shows time variations in luminosity intensity in these two
Fig. 3. Streak picture of plasma motion in the railgun channel filled with
Argon at 25 Torr. The tangential line to the leading front of the plasma
armature corresponds to the maximum plasma velocity. The green line is the
electric current as a function of time. (For interpretation of the references to
colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of
this article.)
S.A. Poniaev et al.
Fig. 4. Time variations in luminosity intensity in two cross sections of the
railgun channel (80 mm (1) and 5 mm (2) from the exit cross section).
cross-sections for the railgun channel filled with xenon. For a pressure of
30 Torr and external magnetic field of 1:45 T, the shock wave velocity
was 5:27 km=s.
3. Theoretical model of plasma acceleration in the
electromagnetic railgun
Let us consider the plasma armature acceleration in a railgun channel
with copper electrodes having a rectangular cross section. The channel is
filled with an inert gas with initial pressure p1 . The plasma armature is
considered as impermeable flat thin current layer of variable mass
occupying the entire cross-sectional area of the channel A ¼ hw, where h
and w are the channel height and width, respectively. The mass accel-
erated in the channel m ¼ mpp þ msl is the sum of masses of the plasma
armature mpp and the gas in the shock-compressed layer msl . The plasma
armature is filled with the erosion mass mpp  mer entering the channel
from the rails surface and involved in the motion by the plasma armature.
The plasma armature composition (in our case Cu, Cuþ, Cuþþ, e) is
determined by the electrode surface material. The plasma of the shock-
compressed layer consists of atoms and ions of the gas filling the chan-
nel after its compression and heating by the shock wave. Both masses
increase with time.
In the presence of an external magnetic field the Ampere force that
accelerates the plasma FA contains two terms [15].
FA ðI; i1 Þ ¼ Fi þ Fe ¼ L'Ii1 =2 þ Bwi1 (1)
The first term Fi is the force of acceleration of the current ipp ¼ i1
flowing through the plasma armature created by the magnetic field of the
discharge current I in the rails-electrodes with the inductance per unit
length L' . The second term Fe is the force produced by the external
magnetic field B acting on the current i1 .
The acceleration of the plasma armature in the channel filled with a
gas is accompanied by the generation of a plane shock wave. The gas is
compressed by this shock wave to pressure p2 . The force of pressure of the
shock-compressed gas Fd ¼ p2 A  v2 is directed opposite to the accel-
erating force FA ðI; i1 Þ. In the case of a low ratio ð< 0:1Þ between the
specific (per unit mass) thermal energy Ej released during the current
passage into the shock-compressed layer and the specific internal gas
energy ,D2 =2 the pressure and other plasma parameters after the shock
wave and the shock-compressed layer length can be calculated by using
the conservation laws at the front of the stationary shock discontinuity
[16]. In addition to force Fd , the plasma armature is affected by the
decelerating force that arises when a part of the erosion mass entering the
3
Acta Astronautica xxx (2017) 1–5
channel is captured and entrained by the accelerated plasma. As a result,
the plasma armature mass increases at a rate m_ er , and its acceleration is
reduced by the action of the “erosion force” Fer ¼ m_ er v.
At high shock wave velocities the physical model of the plasma
armature acceleration is complicated due to presence of the electric field
in the channel [18]. The average value of this field is
E  Upp =h  200  300 V=cm, where Upp is the ohmic voltage drop be-
tween the rails. At low shock wave velocities, the gas in the
shock-compressed layer is nonconducting, the current through the
shock-compressed layer isl is absent, and ipp ¼ I. As the shock wave ve-
locity D increases, the gas is heated and ionized in the shock-compressed
layer. In the absence of current, a layer of positive space charge with the
thickness on the order of the Debye radius rD ðDÞ is formed near the
cathode surface under the action of electric field, and an electric field
EðDÞ  Upp =rD is generated. Under the action of this field the potential
barrier height at the metal-plasma interface decreases, and the auto
emission current from the cathode surface sharply increases. When the
shock wave threshold velocity Dth is reached, i.e., when maximum elec-
tric fields near the microinhomogeneities and surface defects become as
high as 108  109 V=cm, a thermal explosion of the heated regions oc-
curs, and a contact between the cold cathode and plasma of the
shock-compressed layer is established. This ensures a transition from the
explosive emission to an arc discharge [19] and the passage of current
isl ¼ i2 in the entire volume of the shock-compressed layer. In this case
the current in the plasma armature decreases and becomes ipp ¼ I  isl .
The equations of motion of the plasma armature describing the
change in its coordinate, velocity and mass x; v; m are
dx
¼v
dt
 
dv ρA
¼ FA ðI; i1 Þ  CðvÞ 1 v2  m_ er v m (2)
dt 2
dmer
¼ m_ er ¼ m_ 1 ði1 Þ þ m_ 2 ði2 Þ
dt
where CðvÞ ¼ 1ρ2 =ρ , m ¼ m0 þ mer þ msl , msl ¼ ρ1 ðx þ ΔÞA, m_ 2 ði2 Þ  0.
1 2
The length of the shock-compressed layer Δ ¼ xsw  x is determined
by the distance between the shock wave xsw and the plasma armature. At
v < vs (vs is the speed of sound), Δ ¼ 0. At v > vs .
dΔ v
¼Dv¼ (3)
dt ρ2 =ρ1  1
At a relatively low inductance of the rails which are in contact with
the shock-compressed layer ðL2 ¼ L'Δ < 109 HÞ the current in the
shock-compressed layer i2 depends on the ratio between the ohmic re-
sistances of the shock-compressed layer R2  Rsl and the plasma arma-
ture Rp1  1 mΩ. Here Rsl ¼ ðw=hÞ=ðσ 2 ΔÞ is the resistance of the plasma
gap between the rails which are in contact with the shock-compressed
layer, σ 2 is the specific electrical conductivity of the gas after the shock
wave. At t  t0 the current i2 ¼ 0, at t > t0 i2  I=ð1 þ R2 =Rp1 Þ. The time
t0  tth nearly coincides with the time of reaching the threshold velocity
of the shock wave which causes the explosive electron emission.
The initial conditions are vð0Þ ¼ 0; mer ð0Þ ¼ 0; Δð0Þ ¼ 0.
The gas pressure in the shock-compressed layer, the decelerating
force of the plasma armature Fd and the relationship between the ve-
locities of the plasma armature v and the shock wave D are determined
through the compression ratio ρ2 =ρ1 , which is a function of velocity D or
v. The degree of compression and thermodynamic parameters of the gas
behind the shock wave as a function of the plasma armature velocity is
calculated by the method described in Ref. [16]. The maximum differ-
ence of the electron concentration from the data of Ref. [20] is not higher
than a few percent.
The rate of increase in the plasma armature mass m_ er caused by the
intake of erosion mass into the channel and its entrainment by the plasma
armature depends on the electric current in the rails I and is close to a
S.A. Poniaev et al. Acta Astronautica xxx (2017) 1–5

Table 1
Experimental and theoretical data on the plasma armature acceleration in a railgun with a length l ¼ 25 cm.

Gas p1 ;  Torr I;  kA B;  T Dexp ;  km=s Dtheor ;  km=s v;  km=s msl ;  mg m;  mg

Ar 25 23.4 0 5.9 5.86 5.13 0.50 0.70

Ar 25 21 0.97 8.56 8.8 8 0.50 0.57
Ar 25 39 0 8.5 8.11 7.35 0.50 0.94
Ar 25 37 0.87 10 10.9 9.95 0.50 0.74
Ar 25 32.5 1.49 12.1 12.0 10.9 0.50 0.65
Ar 50 42 0 6.98 6.64 5.88 1.00 1.66
Ar 50 54 0 8.53 7.92 7.13 1.00 1.85
Ar 100 34 0 4.86 4.56 3.75 2.00 2,61
Ar 100 46 0 6.11 5.53 4.74 2.00 3.00
Ar 100 61 0 7.12 6.75 5.96 2.00 3.36
Ar 100 72 0 8.08 7.64 6.84 2.00 3.53
Ar 250 58 0 5.4 4.88 4.05 5.00 6.26
Xe 7.6 24 0 5.88 6.58 5.95 0.50 0.564
Xe 7.6 58 0 10.59 10.35 8.67 0.50 1.23
Xe 15 24 0 4.49 4.8 4.39 1.00 1.10
Xe 15 58 0 8.15 7.93 7.13 1.00 2.09
Xe 30 19.5 0 2.94 2.72 2.35 2.00 2.42
Xe 30 42 0 4.96 4.78 4.35 2.00 3.31
Xe 30 57 0 6.58 6.16 5.58 2.00 3.15
Xe 30 23 0.7 4.36 4.35 3.95 2.00 2.39
Xe 30 22 1.45 5.27 5.31 4.83 2.00 2.24
Xe 30 21 2 5.97 5.83 5.29 2.00 2.15

Table 2
Characteristics of the jet at the exit from the railgun channel filled with Argon (railgun channel length l ¼ 50 cm).

p1 ;  Torr I;  kA B;  T V;  km=s m;  mg F;  N ps ;  mNs single pulse ps ;  s

100 60 0 5.81 6.79 1970 39 592

100 60 2 8.95 5.61 2500 50 912
100 100 0 8.93 7.77 3450 69 910
100 100 2 11.99 6.27 3750 75 1223
250 100 0 6.9 12.8 4400 88 703
250 100 2 8.92 12.11 5400 108 910

linear dependence m_ er ¼ a0 þ a1 I. This follows from the experiments for
both the stationary arc discharges and moving plasma in the railgun
channel. In this case the coefficient a1 ¼ dm=dI_ ¼ keff is an effective co-
efficient of erosion taking into account only the entrainment of mass, and
the ratio a0 =a1 determines the minimum current I0 at which erosion
begins. The coefficients a0 , a1 can be determined by applying the pro-
cedure of minimization of the root-mean-square deviation of the theo-
retical and experimental values of the plasma velocity to the set of
experimental data.
4. Comparison of experimental and theoretical results
By using the model proposed above, the flow in the electromagnetic
railgun channel with different discharge currents, applied magnetic
fields, and initial pressures in the channel were calculated.
Experimental and theoretical data on the plasma armature acceleration
in a railgun with length l ¼ 25 cm, the channel of which is filled with argon
and xenon under various initial pressures, are presented in Table 1. The
data include the gas type, initial gas pressure p1 , discharge current I,
external magnetic field induction B, experimental Dexp and theoretical
Dtheor shock wave velocities, plasma armature velocity v, mass of the gas in
the shock-compressed layer msl and the total mass flowing in the railgun
channel m ¼ mer þ msl at the moment the shock wave reaches the muzzle.
The comparison of the experimental and calculated shock wave ve-
locities shows that they are in a fairly good agreement. For low currents
ðI < I0 Þ, when the effect of erosion on the plasma dynamics is insignifi-
cant, the difference between velocities Dexp and Dtheor is a few percent,
which confirms the adequacy of the physical model of the plasma
armature motion. It can be seen that the application of an external
magnetic field leads to a significant increase in the plasma armature and
shock wave velocities.
5. Characteristics of a plasma thruster based on the railgun
Let us estimate power characteristics of a pulsed jet flowing out of
channels filled with different gases (argon and xenon) for various initial
gas pressures p1 and operating currents by using the dynamic accelera-
tion model described above. These characteristics and also parameters of
the accelerated plasma flowing from the railgun channel are given in
Tables 2 and 3. Tables 2 and 3 list data for the plasma thruster with Argon
and Xenon as a working gas, respectively. Here, I is the maximum electric
current flowing in the rails-electrodes, B is the induction of the external
magnetic field, tfl is the time of jet outflow from the channel, v is the
plasma armature velocity at the channel exit, m ¼ mpp þ msl is the mass of
the accelerated plasma and gas that reaches the exit section and outflows
as the pulsed jet, F ¼ mv=tfl is the average pulsed thrust during the jet

Table 3
Characteristics of the jet at the exit from the railgun channel filled with Xenon (railgun channel length l ¼ 50 cm).

p1 ;  Torr I;  kA B;  T V;  km=s m;  mg F;  N ps ;  mNs single pulse ps ;  s

15 100 0 11.46 4.02 2300 46 1168

30 100 0 8.99 6.37 2850 57 916
30 100 2 12.1 5.62 3400 68 1232
100 100 0 5.76 17.85 5150 103 587
100 100 2 7.55 7.55 6250 125 770

4
S.A. Poniaev et al.
outflow time, p ¼ mv is the jet momentum, and pud ¼ v=g is the specific
impulse per unit mass of the jet.
The time of the accelerated plasma outflow from the channel tfl was
estimated from the experiment by using a photosensor that detected the
gas luminosity intensity when the shock-compressed layer and the
plasma armature passed the channel section located at a distance of 5 mm
from the exit from the channel. The time interval between the onset and
disappearance of the luminosity of the accelerated plasma in the region
adjacent to the exit section of the accelerator channel was approximately
equal to the time of escape of the shock-compressed gas and plasma
armature from the channel (Fig. 4). A sharp drop in the luminosity in-
tensity corresponds to the initial stage of the hot gas outflow with
maximum velocities, when p2 ≫p1 , and the tail of the curve corresponds
to the outflow of weakly conducting peripheral layers of the plasma
armature. For different initial pressures and gas types in a channel of
length l ¼ 25 cm filled with argon or xenon, tfl varied in the range 8 
12 μs and was close by the order of magnitude to ð2  3ÞΔ=v. When the
average force F was estimated, the value tfl ¼ 20 μs was used.
It can be seen from Tables 2 and 3 that the specific impulse obtained
for the thruster based on an electromagnetic railgun reaches 1200 s and
the pulsed thrust is up to 5000  6000 N. The application of an external
magnetic field contributes to an increase in both the specific impulse and
the thrust of the plasma thruster. It is important to note that there are
regimes characterized simultaneously by a high thrust and high specific
impulse. For example, the plasma thruster based on the railgun channel
filled with Argon at 100 Torr, electric current in the rails-electrodes of
100 kA, and applied magnetic field of 2 T can produce a specific impulse
of 1223 s and a thrust of 3750 N.
6. Conclusion
Experimental investigations of the possibility to use the electromag-
netic railgun with an external magnetic field as a pulsed electric thruster
have been carried out. An analytical model that describes the gas and
plasma flow in the railgun channel has been developed. The theoretical
calculations proved to be in a good agreement with the experiment. It has
been found that there are operating regimes of the railgun characterized
simultaneously by a high thrust ð5000  6000 NÞ and high specific im-
pulse ð 1000 sÞ. Additional possibilities can be provided by optimizing
the channel parameters. For example, a decrease in the channel cross
section reduces the resistance force, which leads to increases in the plasma
velocity and thrust force. The thrust can also be increased by using
multichannel railguns and by applying higher external magnetic fields.
Acknowledgements
The authors A.I. Sedov and Y.A. Shustrov acknowledge funding of this
research by RFBR Project No 15-08-05010.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data related to this article can be found at https://doi.
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