AbstractMicro-Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (μPPTs) are a promising method for precision attitude control for small spacecraft in formation flying. They create an ionized plasma plume, which may interfere with other spacecraft in the formation. To characterize the ions in the plume, a diagnostic has been built that couples a drift tube with an energy analyzer. The drift tube provides time of flight measurements to determine the exhaust velocity, and the energy analyzer discriminates the ion energies. The energy analyzer measures the current on a collector plate downstream of four grids that repel electrons and ions below a specified energy. The first grid lowers the density of the plasma, therefore increasing Debye length. The second and fourth grids have a negative potential applied to them so they repel the electrons, while the third grid's voltage can be varied to repel lower energy ions. The ion energies can be computed by differentiating the data. Combining the information of the ion energies and their velocities identifies the ion masses in the PPT plume. The PPT used for this diagnostic is the micro-PPT developed for the Dawgstar satellite. This PPT uses 5.2 Joules per pulse and has a 2.3 cm2 propellant area, a 1.3 cm electrode length, and an estimated thrust of 85μN [C. Rayburn et al., AIAA-2000-3256]. This paper will describe the development and design of the time of flight/gridded energy analyzer diagnostic and present recent experimental results.
Pulsed Plasma Thruster plume analysis
Acta Astronautica ; 53 , 4-10 ; 789-795
2003-01-01
7 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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