Magnetoplasmadynamic two-stage micro-cathode arc thruster for CubeSats. (30th September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zolotukhin, D B; Daniels, K P; Bandaru, S R P; Keidar, M
• Is Part Of: Plasma sources science & technology. Volume 28:Number 10(2019:Oct.)
• Publication Date: 2019-09-30
• Subjects: plasma propulsion -- vacuum arc thruster -- micro-cathode arc thruster -- magnetoplasmadynamic thruster; 52.50.Dg -- 52.77.Fv -- 52.75.Di; Plasma (Ionized gases) -- Periodicals; 530.44
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595/ab4170
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-0252

Abstract

Abstract: The addition of the acceleration stage to a micro-cathode vacuum arc thruster ( μ CAT) increases the thrust and the specific impulse. This improves the control of small satellites' orbital parameters and, therefore, the overall efficiency of this thruster for CubeSats. In this article, we show that the second accelerating stage based on the magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) approach allows improvements not only to the thrust (almost twice, from 9 to 18 μ N), but the thrust-to-power ratio (in 53%, from 3.2 to 4.9 μ N W −1 ) of the low-power (several W) miniature (several cm—size) μ CAT, firing at a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz. A significant advantage of the μ CAT-MPD approach is the griddle construction, a design that helps to overcome the loss of ions along the grid cells in the case of gridded ion acceleration stage.