High-energy plasma acceleration by means of an ideal arcjet thruster

A theoretical study is presented on the entropy acceleration of a plasma by means of an ideal arcjet thruster made up of two major parts; an arc column of a uniform temperature between the cathode and the anode, and the heating zone of the injected cold gas. The plasma flow through the arc column follows the Navier-Stokes, since its dynamic viscosity is quite high. Proper boundary values on the cathode surface give a solution that yields sharp plasma acceleration to a high energy by the viscous force. In the heating zone, the flow is driven up mainly by a large temperature difference between the arc and the injected cold gas. The viscous force plasma driving model is applied to the solar wind; good agreement is confirmed between the theory and the observed data