Pulsed Plasma Acceleration Using Powdered Propellant

Pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs) are the simplest electric acceleration devices with solid propellant on satellites. In order to make their thrust performance higher and to feed propellant more effectively, we have been developing a new type PPT using powdered propellant. To estimate its thrust performance, we have made a test model thruster for comparing the thrust performances of PPTs with solid propellant and powdered propellant. And we measured their impulse bits and propellant consumptions using “Thrust Mass Balance” we made. As a result, it was revealed that a PPT using powdered propellant showed as high thrust performance as a PPT using solid propellant in the case that propellant surface was formed enough uniformly.