Dr. James Gilland has over 40 years of experience in forms of plasma propulsion ranging from 300 W to 300 MW, including magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters, radiofrequency heated plasmas, and most recently, Hall Effect thrusters. He also served as the lead nuclear electric propulsion engineer in the NASA Nuclear Propulsion Office, performing mission and system studies and technical assessments of technologies to take humans to Mars and back. Additionally, he is a past NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) Fellow and served on the 2021 National Academies panel for Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration. He has a M.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Q: You have had quite an extensive and impressive career. Can you tell me more about it?
Gilland: I started in mechanical engineering (cams and gears) at Vanderbilt University. Then, I took a chance to study plasma rockets at Princeton University and have made a career of it ever since. I extended my experience with a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I’ve since worked experimentally on thrusters from 300 W to 300 MW and analyzed missions using electric propulsion from kW to MW. I’ve also been able to look at more speculative ideas, such as plasma wave propulsion and fusion propulsion.
Q: What about your work do you find most exciting?
Gilland: The most exciting thing about my work, or my approach to my work, is figuring out a new scientific principle for propulsion, and then not only testing it experimentally, but also analyzing the mission to determine if it is useful. There’s always a bit of suspense, both in the experiment and the mission.
Q: What is a career accomplishment of which you are most proud?
Gilland: At this point, I’m most proud of my role early in my career as the lead nuclear electric propulsion systems engineer in the last NASA Nuclear Propulsion Office at NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center. My work formed part of the groundwork for establishing the office, and I was able to provide guidance in the office to further both system, mission, and technology developments. I was happy to provide that experience on the recent National Academies of Science and Engineering Space Nuclear Propulsion Technologies Committee, assessing space nuclear propulsion for human mars exploration.
Q: You are working with NASA on a 12 kW Hall thruster and integrating it on to the power and propulsion element. What is unique about this thruster?
Gilland: Big picture: Hall thrusters are not like regular rockets; they use electric and magnetic fields to ionize and accelerate plasmas to high speeds ten times higher than chemical rockets. This gives us much higher fuel efficiency and reduces spacecraft mass. Relative to other thrusters being made and flown today, this thruster is one of the highest power thrusters getting ready for space flight. It also incorporates several innovations in Hall thrusters, such as magnetic shielding, which is a center mounted cathode and a new electrical configuration. Each of these has been done on other thrusters separately, but this is the first time they are all used together.
Q: What is your role in the project?
Gilland: To date, I have served in multiple roles for the project. I was a test operator for several wear tests of up to 2000 hours in the development of the final thruster design. To monitor chamber rates that are sputtered back to the thruster from the walls of the chamber, I developed and operated the Back Sputter diagnostic. I acted as test lead for two end to end tests of the Maxar PPE Power Processing Unit with the NASA/Aerojet 12 kW thruster, including the first ever operation of the two systems together. I helped to develop and test the first-ever In Situ Wear Diagnostic, intended to measure wear on the thruster face remotely, in the vacuum chamber. Currently, I am serving as the NASA test lead for a fourth Maxar PPU test of their lower power thruster system and then will be test lead for the next 12 kW End to End test thereafter. Next, I planned to be one of the test operators for the life qualification test of the 12 kW thruster, planned to start next year.
Q: What is the benefit of this technology over those in use?
Gilland: Magnetic shielding has been found (and proven in NASA’s testing) to dramatically extend the operating life of these thrusters, which is now projected to be tens of thousands of hours. The usual life limiter is the walls of the thruster wearing away, and shielding reduces this by orders of magnitude. The central cathode and electrical configuration have made testing on the ground more representative of operation in space.
Q: How might this technology and research be used in the future?
Gilland: This type of thruster, after initial testing at NASA, is being manufactured by the Aerojet Rocketdyne division of L3-Harris. It would be available for future science or commercial missions that might come along. It is a possible technology to be used beyond the Moon, as in recent NASA piloted Mars mission studies that are considering using a nuclear power system and Hall thrusters for sustainable crew transportation to and from Mars. Additionally, some of the innovations here could be used on future commercial systems that might be considered.
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