Abstract:Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters have the characteristics of large thrust and high specific impulse, making it the preferred type of electric thruster for future deep space exploration and interstellar navigation missions. Studying the characteristics of the plasma flowfield inside the thruster is helpful to explain the physical phenomena of the thruster. For the specific self-field magnetic plasma thruster, a magnetohydrodynamics model is established, and the internal and plume of the thruster are numerically solved by using the TVD Lax-Friedrich scheme and the ADI method, and the plasma flowfield and plasma parameter distribution are obtained. The simulation results demonstrate that plasma plume is more concentrated and the effect of axial acceleration is more significant in high current mode. However, the cathode temperature is higher in this condition, which is not conducive to the service life of the cathode.