Congratulations to our two seniors Jack Hollingsworth and Josh Umansky-Castro for completing their degree!

Both of them worked in the steel tank, on Lorentz Force Accelerators. Josh designed and built a video pod that would withstand the extreme environment (vacuum, plasma, high-temperature, lithium vapor) in the tank during operation of the Lithium Lorentz Force Accelerator (LiLFA). The video feed will provide high-quality video of the lithium MPD discharge. Jack performed structural and thermal FEM analysis of the Argon Lorentz Force Accelerator (ALFA), and manufactured the ALFA. He also performed evaporation measurements of the lanthanum hexaboride insert in the graphite hollow cathode after operating the MPD thruster.

Their senior thesis may be found here:

• Jack Hollingsworth - A Graphite Orificed Hollow Cathode for an Argon Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster
• Josh Umansky-Castro - Extreme Environment Video Diagnostic for a Lithium Lorentz Force Accelerator

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Feldman for successfully defending his dissertation “The Direct Wave-Drive Thruster”! Matthew is now off to the Aerospace Corporation in California where he will study the multipactor effect in high-power microwave systems, and find ways to mitigate it.

The brand-new Argon Lorentz Force Accelerator (ALFA) is done being fabricated! This thruster was designed and built by Jack Hollingsworth and Will Coogan for use in the facilities presently used by the LiLFA. This is the first magnetoplasmadynamic thruster to make use of a LaB6 orificed cathode. The performance of this thruster will be reported at the 2017 International Electric Propulsion Conference.

The dimensions of the graphite thruster electrodes are matched to those of the tungsten LiLFA. We contoured the nozzle to match the shape of the applied magnetic field. We anticipate running at power levels up to 30 kW.

Photo credit: Josh Umansky-Castro, Diagram: Will Coogan

We have added more than 35 lab publications dating from 1962! All publications from EPPDyL are searchable on the dedicated page.

Welcome to the new and redesigned EPPDyL website!