Reduction in Ignition Energy for Single Shot Microthrusters Using Pulsed Laser Excitation

摘要

An experiment has been conducted to compare the ignition energy of an existing digital thruster design between a pulsed electrical and laser excitations. A 355nm Nd-YAG pulsed laser is used to ignite the stored lead styphnate propellant charge. Given the device design, roughly 800 μJ is necessary to ignite a 180 μg charge volume with a 90% probability of ignition. This energy value is considered an upper limit. Under equivalent conditions, roughly 2.4mJ of electrical energy is required to ignite the same volume. The digital thruster concept is one approach to provide a valveless, "slap-on" propulsion capability for small (1kg mass class) and large satellites (1000kg mass class) to help maintain attitude or control the damping of low frequency oscillations in extended structures.