Introducing the Journal of Electric Propulsion: An interdisciplinary forum for the growing field of plasma-based space propulsion
Interview with Editor-in-Chief, Michael Keidar
Can you briefly outline the field of electric propulsion?
Nowadays plasmas are used in a variety of aerospace applications including space propulsion. The displacement of a satellite in space, orbit transfer, and its attitude control are the tasks of space propulsion, which are carried out by rocket engines. Rocket engines operate according to the basic principle of action and reaction. A force (thrust) on the spacecraft is formed by ejecting a jet of gas or plasma in the backward direction. In principle, there are two major types of rocket engines which are distinguished by the energy source used to accelerate the fuel, namely chemical and electric rockets.
Plasma propulsion systems utilize electrical energy to first ionize the propellant, and then deliver energy to the resulting plasma, leading to plasma acceleration. Using electrical energy for acceleration of the ionized propellant, electric propulsion systems combine high specific impulse and high efficiency at low thrust. From this point of view, electric propulsion compares favorably to solid and liquid propellant rockets, which are characterized by a low specific impulse. The field of plasma propulsion includes a broad variety of thrusters that can achieve high propellant exhaust velocity, thereby offering large mass savings for space vehicles as compared to chemical (combustion) rockets. These thrusters are broadly categorized by their propellant acceleration mechanism into three categories: electrothermal, electrostatic, and electromagnetic. Research into plasma propulsion dates back over 60 years with a first application in space in 1964 on the Soviet Zond-2, which used an ablative pulsed plasma thruster to control the spacecraft orientation.
Why launch the Journal of Electric Propulsion?
The Journal of Electric Propulsion (JEP) will provide an international, peer-reviewed platform focusing on current and emerging electric propulsion technology. This journal fills a gap in the current literature, with coverage from plasma physics and materials science to the engineering of novel electric propulsion systems. It provides a broad forum of expertise by bringing together researchers and scientists from both academia and industry with a broad range of backgrounds in fundamental, applied and aerospace sciences.
JEP is supported by the membership of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society and will serve as a home for the growing community of participants at the International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC), the premier international forum for developers, researchers, managers, scholars, and students in the field of electric propulsion for spacecraft.
What will JEP cover?
Robust research and development programs are ongoing using experimental test campaigns, physical modeling, and computer simulations to contribute significantly to our overall understanding and advancement of the technology. Many new plasma thruster concepts have been recently developed, including numerous successful attempts to scale previously known systems to lower and higher power levels, ranging from a few Watts to over 100 kW. Significant progress has been made in the field of micropropulsion, offering support to the growing applications of micro- and nano-satellites. In electric thrusters, the plasma conditions span from a collisionless non-equilibrium state to that of a collisionally-dominated equilibrium plasma, and is in some cases highly magnetized. Propellants can range from monatomic gases to ablated polymer solids, resulting in complex, non-homogenous complex plasma chemistry. To this end significant advances have been made in the development and application of both theoretical and experimental methods for studying such plasmas. Many traditional and new plasma diagnostic tools and methods, including electrostatic and electromagnetic probes and sensors and advanced laser-based diagnostic methods, have been developed to characterize the harsh and complex environments found in plasma propulsion devices. A variety of simulation techniques such as Particle-in-Cell (PIC), Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), fluid modeling, hybrid fluid-PIC approaches, and multi-dimensional analysis are now commonly used for studying thruster plasmas.
JEP aims to publish high quality original research papers covering all of the aforementioned aspects of plasma propulsion, as well as regular Review Articles providing comprehensive overviews of the state-of-the-art in topics of current and emerging interest. In addition, we invite proposals for Special Issues that focus on the latest developments in topics relevant to electric propulsion and plasmas.
JEP is a fully Open Access journal, thus meeting funder requirements and allowing the maximum possible exposure of published work to the electric propulsion community and beyond.
It is the goal of the Editors and the Editorial Board to strive for rigorous peer review and to provide an attractive publishing platform for the best research in electric propulsion.
Journal of Electric Propulsion is now open for submissions.
Editor-in-chief, Michael Keidar
Michael Keidar is A. James Clark Professor of Engineering at the George Washington University. His research is concerned with advanced spacecraft propulsion, plasma medicine and plasma-based nanotechnology. He has authored over 300 journal articles, 300 conference papers, is author of the textbook Plasma Engineering and editor of the recently-published Plasma Cancer Therapy. He received the 2017 Davidson award in plasma physics. In 2016 he received the AIAA Engineer of the Year award for his work on micropropulsion, which resulted in the successful launch of a nanosatellite with thrusters developed by his laboratory. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Investors, Fellow of the American Physical Society and Fellow of the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics, and President of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society.
