LGIT
Engine · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
UM electric rocket engine. Linear Gridless Ion Thruster, a two-stage device designed to incorporate the efficient ionization process of gridded ion thrusters and the high thrust density of Hall thrusters.
The Linear Gridless Ion Thruster (LGIT) was a two-stage device that was designed to incorporate the efficient ionization process found in gridded ion thrusters with the high thrust density and crossed-field acceleration mechanism of Hall thrusters. This thruster essentially combined the ionization stage of an ion thruster with the acceleration stage of a Hall thruster. Initial tests of the LGIT were disappointing. In the three minutes that the discharge was maintained, the thrust stand recorded a constant thrust of approximately 20 mN. This equated to a specific impulse of approximately 1400 seconds. The calculated anode efficiency was 12%. The low efficiency was not surprising considering that the LGIT was operating in a single-stage mode rather than the two-stage mode for which it was designed.
Electrical Input Power: 2.00 kW.