If this thruster works, the VASIMR people could stop messing around with their ICRH (resonant ion heater) in the expanding section of their plasma. VASIMR creates a helicon plasma, lets it flow out one end (a one-sided magnetic mirror), and adds ion heating in the expanding plasma. The 'double layer' forms due to expanding a plasma in a one-sided magnetic mirror. I don't know is the VASIMR people have looked for a double layer, but they probably would find one if they tried.
The hoped-for improvement of VASIMR is that you can gain additional ion energy, over the double-layer voltage, through conservation of the magnetic moment. It's maybe not so easy to single-pass heat ions, however.
One issue with both concepts: I think that they assume a very high ionization fraction; efficiency per input gas is pretty important here.
Additional issue with the double-layer idea: I've never seen a power balance -- I don't know how the input RF power is converted to directional ion momentum. But I might be ignorant. I (thereby) don't know how you can control the double-layer, and thereby the thrust and SI).
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If this thruster works, the VASIMR people could stop messing around with their ICRH (resonant ion heater) in the expanding section of their plasma. VASIMR creates a helicon plasma, lets it flow out one end (a one-sided magnetic mirror), and adds ion heating in the expanding plasma. The 'double layer' forms due to expanding a plasma in a one-sided magnetic mirror. I don't know is the VASIMR people have looked for a double layer, but they probably would find one if they tried. The hoped-for improvement of VASIMR is that you can gain additional ion energy, over the double-layer voltage, through conservation of the magnetic moment. It's maybe not so easy to single-pass heat ions, however. One issue with both concepts: I think that they assume a very high ionization fraction; efficiency per input gas is pretty important here. Additional issue with the double-layer idea: I've never seen a power balance -- I don't know how the input RF power is converted to directional ion momentum. But I might be ignorant. I (thereby) don't know how you can control the double-layer, and thereby the thrust and SI).