Series development of coaxial pulsed plasma thruster from 1 J to 8 J

Since a pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) uses a solid propellant such as Polytetrafluoroethylene, simple, small, and high-reliability propulsion systems will be achieved. For application to small satellites, we started developing a PPT with coaxial electrodes and an annular propellant with 8 J of input energy. From some experimental results, we succeeded in more than 80,000 time operations with 215 µNs of average impulse bit, which corresponds to 27 µNs/J of impulse bit to input energy ratio. Based on the design guideline, we developed 4 J and 1 J coaxial PPTs. 29 µNs/J and 17 µNs/J were obtained in 4 J and 1 J operations, respectively.