Pulsed Plasma Thruster Piezo-Igniter for Small Satellite

The proposal approaches to a revolutionary new approach to providing very compact, lightweight, non-RFI/EMI ignition system to be integrated with pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) used for spacecraft attitude control. The design eliminates for the first time conventional discharge capacitor and electromagnetic transformers (heavy and EMI noisy) with a compact and highly efficient novel technology - the piezoelectric technology. The proposal has an important relevance in the current interest on improving the state of the art PPT ignition systems. The novel system uses an AC discharge generation rather than a DC and may be highly controlled to provide different timing and number of sparks to optimize the efficiency of the plasma ignition. Phase I intends to demonstrate the feasibility of the piezoelectric technology for PPT ignition. Phase II will integrate the technology and adapt it to the specifications of the current PPTs. This will lead to the final low-cost advanced flight-qualified system in Phase III. The resulting advanced propulsion system will result in reduced mass and launch/spacecraft cost for small satellites, and will be applicable to precision attitude control and station-keeping for small spacecraft as currently considered by NASA.