Important announcement

Dear visitor,

Please note that this OpenCourseWare platform will be replaced at the end of 2026 by a new platform (under the same url ocw.tudelft.nl).

Courses and their contents that are currently available the platform will partly be migrated. URL’s for this content will change and content might be unavailable for some time. In addition, some courses will not be available anymore.

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Thank you.

2.2 Introduction, learning objectives and content available in full course

Course subject(s) 2. Rocket & Onboard Propulsion

Introduction

Electric propulsion is a rather special category of space propulsion: it is based on very different principles and operational characteristics than chemical propulsion and, unfortunately, it can not be analyzed by means of the Ideal Rocket Theory.

In this unit, you will learn about the basics of electric propulsion, the various types of electric propulsion available, and how to characterize the performance of the most common ones.

Continue to be curious and to ask questions, and don’t hesitate to contact me for any doubts or remarks!

Angelo

 

Learning objectives/outcomes

By the end of this activity, you will be able to:

  • Characterize the key performance parameters of electric propulsion systems and understand the differences between chemical and electrical propulsion
  • Formulate the technical principles of electric propulsion systems
  • Identify the technology state-of-the-art, the available electric propulsion options and their physical and technical limitations
Learning Activities (to do’s)

  • Watch the lecture videos
  • Practice with the “to do”‘s proposed at the end of each      video (reflections on the contents presented in the video)
  • Read the lecture notes and/or surf through the lecture slides
  • After having watched and understood all the study      material, try the exercises in the Maple TA assignment
  • Attend the class (or online) session
  • Attend the CubeSat Workshop (see dedicated learning unit)

Additional material in full course

  • Five video lectures
  • Exercise quiz on these lectures
Creative Commons License
Linear Modelling by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/spacecraft-technology/.
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