Enabling low-cost high-energy missions with small spacecraft by using pulsed plasma thrusters
Enabling low-cost high-energy missions with small spacecraft by using pulsed plasma thrusters
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.
PPT, Lunar Mission, electrostatic actuation
Gessini, Paolo
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Possa, Gabriela C.
ae94968d-201c-41e9-ab79-e0845af8367f
Intini Marques, Rodrigo
84d98e50-f289-46ed-8099-31e798bc8c41
Dobranszki, Cristian
82fe7440-1617-4258-8260-04a1df727924
Golosnoy, Igor O.
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Gabriel, Stephen
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259
1 October 2019
Gessini, Paolo
85d676ff-05b5-4b3d-97d5-a2a5af976af1
Possa, Gabriela C.
ae94968d-201c-41e9-ab79-e0845af8367f
Intini Marques, Rodrigo
84d98e50-f289-46ed-8099-31e798bc8c41
Dobranszki, Cristian
82fe7440-1617-4258-8260-04a1df727924
Golosnoy, Igor O.
40603f91-7488-49ea-830f-24dd930573d1
Gabriel, Stephen
ac76976d-74fd-40a0-808d-c9f68a38f259
Gessini, Paolo, Possa, Gabriela C., Intini Marques, Rodrigo, Dobranszki, Cristian, Golosnoy, Igor O. and Gabriel, Stephen
(2019)
Enabling low-cost high-energy missions with small spacecraft by using pulsed plasma thrusters.
36th International Electric Propulsion Conference: IEPC, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
15 - 20 Sep 2019.
9 pp
.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
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.
Text
IEPC19-Paper_PGessini[Published]
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Published date: 1 October 2019
Venue - Dates:
36th International Electric Propulsion Conference: IEPC, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2019-09-15 - 2019-09-20
Keywords:
PPT, Lunar Mission, electrostatic actuation
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 435898
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/435898
PURE UUID: 83b2556e-e18e-4663-b212-1a1830a676f4
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Date deposited: 22 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:14
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Contributors
Author:
Paolo Gessini
Author:
Gabriela C. Possa
Author:
Rodrigo Intini Marques
Author:
Cristian Dobranszki
Author:
Igor O. Golosnoy
Author:
Stephen Gabriel
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