Development of Ignition Unit for Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Liquid-fed Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (LPPTs) suffer from various disadvantages, such as low operational efficiency, propellant mass losses due to post ablative effects and failure of the system due to short circuiting of the traditional ignitor plug. The approach to solve these issues is to revisit the sub-systems for LPPTs, investigating favourable liquid discharge conditions under high vacuum at the fundamental level. The aim is to redesign the traditionally employed semiconductor spark plug, specifically for liquid-fed PPTs. However, the redesigned device may have a wider applicability.The reduction in ignition voltage, among other advantages, has been preliminary tested; showing the advantages of using electrowetting in to enhance the electric field locally and ultimately induce discharge at lower applied voltages, as desired.The second part of the project is to implement a new feeding system which, in conjunction with the ignition unit, would raise the operational efficiency of LPPTs; consequently making them more competitive with other electric propulsion systems.