Power and gas injection design for plasmoid magnetic reconnection thruster*

With increasing interest in space travel and multiple companies and countries looking towards future missions to Mars, efficient and high-power propulsion systems are needed. Towards this end, this paper looks at the preliminary design of a thruster that utilizes plasmoid ejection through fast magnetic reconnection for propulsion [F. Ebrahimi, Journal of Plasma Physics, 86(6), 2020]. This thruster system can potentially fill the gap between high-efficiency Hall and Ion thrusters and the high thrust of chemical rockets needed for such missions. The design of the capacitor bank system for plasma generation and the gas injection system of this thruster will be examined in detail. These designs show the requirements of such a thruster and how they can be achieved. The method of data analysis for the prototype will be discussed, how the prototype's performance will be verified, the limitations of the prototype, and ways to remove these limitations in later iterations.