Pulsed plasma thruster technology for small satellite missions (original) (raw)
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Enabling Low-Cost High-Energy Missions with Small Spacecraft by Using Pulsed Plasma Thrusters
2019
Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) were the first Electric Propulsion devices ever to be employed in an actual space mission, and continue to be used today when simplicity, robustness and scalability to different power levels are dominant requirements. Therefore, they find a natural niche of application in small-spacecraft missions, where mass, volume and onboard power are at a premium, in spite of their low overall efficiency and not fully understood physical operating principles. While PPTs have drawn renewed attention from the international space community after a long hiatus, this has been generally limited, until now, to low Delta-V, low total impulse missions. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of performing high Delta-v, high total impulse missions, such as orbit raising or even deep-space missions, using PPTs onboard small spacecraft.
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY FOR AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES, AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN, 2011
Although the pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) was first utilized on a space mission in 1964, after more than four decades, it is still a space-rated technology which has performed various propulsion tasks, from station-keeping to three-axis attitude control for a variety of former missions. With respect to the rapid growth in the small satellite community and the growing interest for smaller satellites in recent years, the PPT is one of the promising electric propulsion devices for small satellites (e.g., CubeSats) due to the following advantages: simplicity, lightweight, robustness, low power consumption, low production cost and small dimensions. Therefore, a laboratory benchmark rectangular breech-fed pulsed plasma thruster using a self-inductor as a coupling element was designed, developed and successfully tested in a bell-type vacuum chamber at 10 -4 Pa for the first time in west Asia (Iran). The PPT has been tested using a 35 μF, 2.5 kV oil-filled capacitor, producing an impulse bit varying from 300 μN-s to 1.3 mN-s at a maximum specific impulse of 1100 s. As a result a research program in Iran was initiated for working on PPTs and the miniaturization of PPTs while increasing the performance parameters. The present paper briefly reviews the PPT design and development.
A small all electrical satellite is planned for a lunar mission scheduled for launch 2008 by the Institute for Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart. Due to its inherent characteristics a Pulsed Plasma Thruster was chosen for propelling the spacecraft. First steps were taken towards building and dimensioning this thruster. In this paper, a summary of the requirements towards the thruster system is given. A design for a modular testing approach is introduced, with which the optimal configuration for the pulsed plasma thruster can be determined. This modular thruster will be installed within the newly established vacuum tank. With this setup different parameters of the thruster will be analyzed. Further, the individual components of the thruster, such as propellant, electrodes, capacitor and igniter, are examined and criteria for evaluation discussed. A short description of the physics used for simulation of the thruster dynamics is given.
Review of Thermal Pulsed Plasma Thruster - Design, Characterization, and Application
With increasing demand for small satellite, the miniaturization of propulsion system is unavoidable. This forces Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) to operate in a low-energy mode in which their performance is comparatively low. In such case, most of the discharge energy dissipates on Ohmic heating. The performance of low-energy PPT might be dominated by electrothermal acceleration instead of the electromagnetic acceleration. Therefore, the importance of thermal PPT should be re-evaluated. However, no publication yet existed to summarize the development of miniaturized PPT. Therefore, this paper presents the history of the development on low-energy PPT (< 20J), including the design concept and parameter, experiments and numerical model. The important issue in miniaturized PPT will be concerned and discussed.
High Frequency Burst Pulsed Plasma Thruster Research at the University of Southampton
2007
Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) are long standing electric propulsion thrusters that are reliable, relatively simple and low cost. A main problem with PPTs is its low efficiency, typically between 3-8%. One of the main contributors for the low efficiency in PPTs is the sublimation of propellant that takes place after the main discharge. This late time ablation produces a low speed gas and macro particles that does not contribute significantly to produce thrust. The High Frequency Pulsed Plasma Thruster (HFB-PPT) aims at accelerating the late time ablation by employing additional discharges after the main discharge. This paper presents the research on HFB-PPT at the University of Southampton and the development and test of a rectangular HFB-PPT, the design of a coaxial HFB-PPT and the initial design of a low power HFB-PPT for use in the UniSat-5 satellite.
A Performance Comparison of Pulsed Plasma Thruster Electrode Configurations
Pulsed plasma thrusters are currently planned on two small satellite missions and proposed for a third. In these missions, the pulsed plasma thruster's unique characteristics will be used variously to provide propulsive attitude control, orbit raising, translation, and precision positioning. Pulsed plasma thrusters are attractive for small satellite applications because they are essentially stand alone devices which eliminate the need for toxic and/or distributed propellant systems. Pulsed plasma thrusters also operate at low power and over a wide power range without loss of performance. As part of the technical development required for the noted missions, au experimental program to optimize performance with respect to electrode configuration was undertaken. One of the planned missions will use pulsed plasma thrusters for orbit raising requiring relatively high thrust and previously tested configurations did not provide this. Also, higher capacitor energies were tested than previously tried for this mission. Multiple configurations were tested and a final configuration was selected for flight hardware development. This paper describes the results of the electrode optimization in detail.
Preliminary Results of a High Frequency Pulsed Plasma Thruster
43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, 2007
Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) are long standing electric propulsion thrusters that are reliable, relatively simple and low cost. One of the main issues with PPTs is its low efficiency (discharge energy vs. exhaust jet"s kinetic energy), typically between 3-8%. One of the main contributors for the low performance in PPTs is the late time ablation (LTA). LTA is the sublimation of propellant that takes place after the main discharge, due to the propellant, usually Teflon ® , temperature being above its sublimation point. The LTA produces a low speed gas and macro particles that does not contribute significantly to produce thrust. The High Frequency Pulsed Plasma Thruster (HFB-PPT) is a novel patented design that aims at accelerating the late time ablation by employing additional discharges after the main discharge. This paper presents the HFB-PPT concept and preliminary results.
Performance characterization of a high efficiency gas-fed pulsed plasma thruster
33rd Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 1997
We present a characterization of the performance of a recently developed gas-fed pulsed plasma thruster (GF-PPT) at low discharge energies (≤5 J). The impulsive thrust measurements were made using EPPDyL's high-accuracy interferometric microthrust stand. The thruster is best suited for small satellite applications and is operated in an unsteady pulsed mode (3 µs/pulse). It is the result of a series of design iterations aimed at achieving the highest thrust efficiencies for unsteady electromagnetic acceleration at low discharge energies. The use of advanced nonlinear magnetic switching technology, which insured a total system inductance of 3-4 nH, combined with an electrode geometry and radial gas injection that favor low profile losses, yielded a total efficiency of 50% at 5 J with argon (at an impulse bit of 32 µNs and a mass bit of .2 µg/shot). This is the highest measured efficiency ever reported for a PPT at this low energy level. Moreover, the low mass utilization efficiency problem that plagued previous gas-fed pulsed
Development of a Dual-axis Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Nanosatellite Applications
2019
This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a dual-axis pulsed plasma thruster (dPPT) for Aoba Velox-III 2U CubeSat at Nanyang Technological University. The mission requirements and thruster design, including electronics and mechanics, are described in detail. A test campaign was conducted to evaluate the dPPT performance in terms of impulse bit Ibit, specific impulse Isp, mass bit mbit, discharge voltage, and current of energy storage unit (ESU) response. Finally, experiments were carried out to verify the design consistency with mission requirements. Experiment results were collected to optimize the thruster in the future.
Pulsed plasma propulsion for a small satellite - Mission COMPASS P3OINT
32nd Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 1996
Pre-launch characterization and preparation of a Lincoln Experimental Satellite (LES 8/9) ablative pulsed plasma thruster (APPT) module for the COMPASS P 3 OINT Mission are described. COMPASS P 3 OINT is a joint project between the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab (EPPDyL) of Princeton University and the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Science (IZMIRAN) to carry inorbit investigations with an ablative pulsed plasma thruster onboard COMPASS, an IZMIRAN scientific microsatellite to be launched in October, 1996. The unmodified LES 8/9 APPT module produces impulse bits of 285 µN-s at an I sp of 836 s using 25 W of power on average. The APPT module will be used to conduct in-orbit investigations of pulsed plasma propulsion as well as to provide attitude control of the satellite and a source of plasma for active space experiments. Details of the power, command, and telemetry signals required to operate the device on the COMPASS satellite are presented. Thermal control and various operational modes are also outlined.