Experimental Investigations and Numerical Modeling of Pulsed Plasma Thruster Plumes

摘要

Integration of pulsed plasma thruster(PPT)onboard spacecraft requires the evaluation of potential plume/spacecraft interactions. Important findings are summarized of our experimental and modeling plume in- vestigations of rectangular-geometry Teflon PPTs. Initial studies of the Lincoln Experimental Satellite 8/9 PPT plume used time-of-flight analysis of single langmuir probe data and found two ion populations with approxi- mately 30 and 60 km/s, respectively. A residual gas analyzer identified C, F, C_xF_y, and various thruster materials.