Richard Wirz

wirz@seas.ucla.edu
(310) 825-5489

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

Senior Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE

Power & Energy Society

Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society

Sigma Gamma Tau, Aerospace Honor Society

Electric Rocket Propulsion Society, ERPS

American Solar Energy Society, ASES

Part-time Senior Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology

Electric and micro propulsion, low temperature plasma and plasma discharges, spacecraft and space mission design, alternative energy generation and storage.

Selected Recent Publications

1.      Wirz R., Goebel D., "Effects of Magnetic Field Topography on Ion Thruster Discharge Performance," Plasma Sources Science and Technology, June 2008, 17 (2008) 035010.

2.      Wirz R., Sullivan R., Przybylowski J., Silva M., "Discharge Hollow Cathode and Extraction Grid Analysis for the MiXI Ion Thruster," International Journal of Plasma Science and Engineering, Vol. 2008, Article ID 693825, June 2008.

3.      Goebel D., Wirz R., Katz I., “Analytical Ion Thruster Discharge Performance Model,” Journal of Propulsion and Power, 0748-4658, Vol. 23, No.5, pp. 1055-1067, 2007.

4.      Wirz R., Anderson J. R., Goebel D., Katz I., “Decel Grid Effects on Ion Thruster Grid Erosion,” IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, September 2008.

5.      Hofer R., Johnson L. K., Goebel D., Wirz R., "Effects of an Internally-Mounted Cathode on Hall Thruster Plume Properties," IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, September 2008.

6.      Wirz R., Shariff S., “Ground Effects for Widely Spaced, Supersonic Vertical Retrorockets on CEV,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 599-605, May-June 2009.

Patents

Wirz R., “Internally Heated Cathode,” Patent No. US 7,471,035 B2, Dec. 30, 2008

Wirz R., “Accelerator System and Method for Accelerating Particles,” NASA Patent Case No. NPO-43524-1-CU, Feb 2007, currently under review at USPTO

NASA Tech Briefs
1.       Wirz R., Gamero M., Goebel D., “Pulsed Operation of an Ion Accelerator,” NASA Tech Brief, NPO-44961, pg. 52, Vol. 33, No. 2, Feb 2009.

2.       Goebel D., Polk J. E., Wirz R., “Increasing the Life of a Xenon-Ion Spacecraft Thruster,” NASA Tech Brief, NPO-43495, Vol. 31, No. 11, Nov 2007.