Feasibility Study

Demonstrator Engine

Dynamic Tests

The flight programme has started and is scheduled to deliver a fully qualified thruster in May 2009. This thruster is specified to produce a static thrust of 85mN for a 3.9Ghz input of 300W. The thruster mass is 2.9kg. A minimum operational lifetime of 15 years is specified. The envelope dimensions are shown below.

The thruster is designed to be powered from existing flight qualified TWTAs, which are driven from a dual redundant frequency generator unit (FGU) The FGU includes a frequency control loop using feedback signals from the thruster, as shown below in the functional block diagram.