Development and Operation Demonstration of Pulsed Plasma Thruster for 2U-CubeSat

Abstract

KOSEN-1, the first artificial satellite developed by 10 National Institutes of Technology (KOSEN), was launched in November 2021. KOSEN-1 is a 2U size (20×10×10cm) CubeSat orbiting in a low orbit at an altitude of about 575km. In order to extending the operating time of KOSEN-1, a propulsion system for increasing altitude is necessary. In the present study, we designed and manufactured a compact Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) that operates with a power of several Watts. We performed an experiment for demonstration of PPT in vacuum chamber. As a result, we showed that the ignition voltage at which the main discharge of 1.4 kV occurs stably repeatedly is around 10 kV and observed the generation of plasma in the PPT. The velocity of PPT plasma of 19 km/s was measured by TOF method. The PPT plasma temperature and density were measured 3.04 eV and 2.81×10²¹ m^-3 by Double Probes respectively. At the main discharge voltage of the PPT of 1.4kV, the impulse bit measured using the target method was 65 µNs.