Abstract:
Integral and local characteristics of the laboratory model of a low-power plasma thruster operating in a pulsed regime have been experimentally studied. Rectangular pulses of discharge current with the leading and trailing fronts not exceeding 1 ms have been obtained. At an average supplied electric power of $\sim$150 W, the propulsion efficiency amounted to 35%. The plasma concentration, electron temperature, and potential distributions in the output plasma jet have been measured using an electric probe. These measurements showed that a well formed plasma jet with a small divergence angle exists behind the thruster edge.
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