Electrostatic pump development for micro liquid pulsed plasma thrusters

Dobranszki, Cristian, Golosnoy, Igor O. and Gabriel, Stephen (2021) Electrostatic pump development for micro liquid pulsed plasma thrusters. Space Propulsion Conference 2021, Portugal. 08 - 12 Feb 2021. pp. 1-6 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The reliability of a novel electrostatic pump has been demonstrated experimentally, achieving an active control of the delivered propellant via voltage alternation in the feeding system. The fundamental operational mechanism and electrostatic simulations of the thruster, with the integrated feeding system are presented. Two major drawbacks of the novel pump are the requirement to synchronise the propellant injection with the ignition of the discharge and the requirement of an additional high voltage supply for the feeding electrode. With help of a simple circuit design tool a method of coupling the feeding electrode to the ignition electrode has been found, removing the need of the additional voltage supply. Furthermore, synchronisation between the discharge ignition and propellant delivery time is achieved passively, maintaining the robustness and simplicity of traditional pulsed plasma thrusters. Performance data of the electrostatic feeding system and estimates of the specific impulse after 500 shots are given.

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