Micro-propulsion systems for CubeSats are rapidly gaining attention from the CubeSat community as they allow them to increase mission lifetime, perform complex maneuvers, and precise attitude control. These systems need to cope with the low amount of available power onboard these satellites, which is usually less than 5 watts. Various thruster concepts based on vacuum arcs are currently under development capable of efficiently producing highly-ionized plasma in a pulsed mode at very low average power. When used for space applications, this technology can be used as a main propulsion system as well as attitude control. This paper reviews the electric propulsion technology of vacuum arc thrusters and their current state of the art.
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