Innovative Applications of Plasma Discharge for Power and Propulsion Technology

Traditional stationkeeping thrusters for satellites are low-efficient, complex, monopropellant or bipropellant chemical thrusters. The complexity and stored propellant of the thrusters result in satellites with higher dry weights, decreased payloadcapabilities, and thus higher incurred costs.A significant opportunity exists in the area of satellite stationkeeping for innovative propulsion systems with high efficiency, high reliability, long operational lifetime, and low mass. Pseudospark and other hollow cathode discharges can meet many ofthese objectives, particularly if a means of miniaturizing these plasma discharges can be developed. A reduction in size will allow a significant reduction in operating voltage and offer a significant advantage to space-based applications by reducing theamount of power required to operate the device. Reduction in operation voltage also greatly decreases the mass required for a plasma based propulsion system. Also, miniaturizing the pseudospark device through MEMS technology should allow for high-densityproduction on a single wafer. This is extremely appealing to space-based propulsion applications since a higher density allows redundancy of devices, which may enable thrust-specific optimization of individual propulsion cells since there exists theability to include thousands of individual pseudospark cells in a single thrust unit.Anticipated ResultsThe Phase I research will provide the initial design for a scaled-down, MEMS pseudospark thruster device. The device will be commercially marketed to satellite manufactures, manufacturers of electron beam metal deposition systems, and other advancedindustrial suppliers where high-current, pulsed electron beams would be invaluable. MEMS-based pseudospark devices have several potential applications: fine-steering devices for current satellites, stationkeeping thrusters for microsatellites, electron beam sources for metal sputtering equipment, and other advanced industrialapplications have a large number of situations where high-current, pulsed electron beams would be invaluable.