Electromagnetic Effects in the Near Field Plume Exhaust of a Micro-Pulsed-Plasma Thruster

Device and Plume Model of an Electrothermal Pulsed Plasma Thruster

Progress in combined device/plume modeling is presented for a Teflon-fed, pulsed plasma thruster from plasma generation to the plume far field. In this work we apply a one-dimensional unsteady model for the plasma generation and acceleration process. A new kinetic ablation algorithm is employed to calculate the Teflon ablation rate as a function of plasma parameters. A near cathode sheath model...

Experimental Investigations of Plasma Parameters and Species-dependent Ion Energy Distribution in the Plasma Exhaust Plume of a Hall Thruster

Plasma Properties in the Plume of a Hall Thruster Cluster

The Hall thruster cluster is an attractive propulsion approach for spacecraft requiring very high-power electric propulsion systems. Plasma density, electron temperature, and plasma potential data collected with a combination of triple langmuir probes and floating emissive probes in the plume of a low-power, four-engine Hall thruster cluster are presented. Simple analytical formulas are introdu...

Plasma Generation and Plume Expansion for a Transmission-Mode Micro-Laser Ablation Plasma Thruster

An end-to-end model is presented of the transient plume created by a micro laser-ablation plasma thruster. In this paper we describe a model of the plasma generation and expansion for a microlaser plasma thruster operated in transmission-mode (T-mode). The laser ablation and plasma formation processes are modeled using a kinetic ablation model. This procedure provides boundary conditions at the...

Near-field laser-induced fluorescence velocimetry of neutral xenon in a 6-kW Hall thruster plume

We present laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements of neutral xenon (6s [3/2]2) in the near-field plume of a 6-kW Hall thruster. The 823.163 nm (air) beam from a TUI Optics TA-100/830 tapered-amplifier diode laser is focused along an axial beamline onto a submillimeter interrogation volume, from which we collect resonant LIF. Polarization control via a rotating half-wave plate keeps the i...