Terry Kammash - NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts

Plasma Expansion in VacuumIon acceleration timet i =h/v i = 19×10 -15 secPulse length (projected)τ=30×10 -15Thenτ>t i Expansion is Isothermalv i max = 2 C S ln(d/h)C S = √ZT e /m i =3×10 7 m/secv i max = 10 8 m/secV i initial ≈ 5×10 7 m/sec