Call for Papers

The International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC) is organized under the sponsorship of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society as a forum for researchers, developers, managers, scholars, and students in the field of electric propulsion for spacecraft.

The IEPC, held every second year, alternating between a United States and a non-United States location, is attended by participants from 15 countries representing the worldwide electric propulsion community. The 31st IEPC, scheduled from September 20 – 24, 2009, will mark the first time the conference has been held in Michigan.

Papers are invited in the following tracks of electric propulsion:

  • Advanced thruster concepts
  • Arcjet and resistojet thrusters
  • Cathodes
  • Diagnostics
  • EP flight missions
  • EP mission analysis and design
  • EP systems
  • Feed systems
  • General overview papers
  • Hall thrusters
  • Ion thrusters
  • Microwave, rf and helicon thrusters
  • Micro-propulsion
  • MPD thrusters
  • Pulsed plasma thrusters (PPT)
  • Thruster plumes/spacecraft interactions
  • Other

Papers regarding the use of electric propulsion in the context of novel mission designs are particularly welcomed as submissions. For example, this could apply to microthruster applications in formation flight, or the use of electric propulsion in combination with weak stability boundary trajectories in multi-body regimes.

Papers targeting other topics related to electric propulsion are also welcome, including program overviews and papers on the history of electric propulsion. Papers highlighting the role of new countries emerging in the space arena are particularly encouraged.

Authors who would like to present a paper on the above topics must submit a two-page abstract (that can contain figures, photographs, and references) online no later than GMT midnight on Friday, May 15, 2009.

Abstracts will be reviewed by the IEPC09 Technical Committee and authors will be notified by Monday, June 15, 2009 on the outcome of the review process. If you are not contacted by this date, please contact Mark Fischer.

Final papers must be uploaded via the IPEC09 website no later than GMT midnight on Tuesday, September 1, 2009.