Linac Design Elements for Spaceborne Accelerators

Los Alamos National Laboratory, in collaboration with SLAC and Goddard Space Flight Center, have begun developing a high-duty-factor, MeV-range linear accelerator intended for use on satellites, specifically to probe the magnetosphere-ionosphere linkage. The design makes use of low-beta C-band cavities operating at moderate gradients, individually powered by 500-W RF amplifier chips. We present the current state of the design, and technology maturation efforts including RF amplifier performance studies, cavity tuner design and an initial acceleration test using a DC beam source and single RF cavity.