86 results about "Pulsed plasma thruster" patented technology

The invention provides a pulsed plasma thruster with water as a working medium. The thruster comprises two parts, namely a thruster body and a power supply processing unit, wherein the thruster body consists of a thruster structure and an energy storage capacitor; the thruster structure comprises a positive pole, a negative pole, a trigger, a wording medium feeding mechanism and a nozzle; the power supply processing unit consists of a main power supply and a triggering power supply; the main power supply is connected to the wiring terminals of the positive pole and the negative pole by wires,and is simultaneously connected with the energy storage capacitor; and the triggering power supply is connected with the trigger. A water working medium is added with sodium chloride or potassium chloride solution in which elements are easily ionized at the molar percentage of 0.5-2.2%. The specific impulse of the pulsed plasma thruster with water as the working medium provided by the invention is higher than that of the Teflon pulsed plasma thruster, and is adapted to the operation of low-power pulsed plasma thrusters; and when used in spacecrafts, the pulsed plasma thruster can be used for improving the efficiency, greatly saving the cost and space, and solving the problem of space replenishment of thrusters.

The invention discloses an electrode structure for a plasma thruster. The electrode structure comprises a cathode and an anode, wherein the cathode is a cylindrical cathode, one end of the cathode is inserted into a tube-shaped insulator with a through hole, the other end of the insulator is provided with the anode, a hollow cavity is arranged in the anode in a same axial direction with the through hole of the tube-shaped insulator, the sectional area of the cavity is progressively increased along the axial extension direction of the tube-shaped insulator, and threads are arranged on the inner surface of the tube-shaped insulator and are single threads, double threads or multiple threads. According to the electrode structure disclosed by the invention, through a reasonable electrode structure design, better electric heating acceleration effect is obtained by utilizing the aerodynamic force generated due to difference of pressures insides and outsides a tube after discharging, thus effectively improving the thrusting effect and the working efficiency of the pulse plasma thruster. With the adoption of the electrode structure, the thrusting effect is good, and a plasma obtained after discharging is large in density and has a simple structure.

The invention relates to a pulse plasma thruster with a ceramic nozzle on the side wall, comprising: a high-voltage power supply, an energy storage capacitor, a propellant, a ceramic nozzle, an anode, a cathode, a semiconductor spark plug, an ignition control circuit board, and a feed spring. Wherein, the nozzles are wedge-shaped, and are installed in pairs on the side between the anode and the cathode on the inner wall of the thruster casing, and the installation position is as close as possible to the surface of the propellant. The end face of the ceramic nozzle near the electrode is designed to have a 45° chamfer. This type of nozzle can effectively improve the acceleration performance of the slow neutral gas during the working process of the thruster. At the same time, compared with the electrode-type nozzle, the side-wall nozzle can minimize the influence of the nozzle on the discharge channel, reduce the resistance of the main discharge circuit and obtain a higher discharge current. The new nozzle can reduce the loss of electromagnetic acceleration force and obtain higher thrust and work efficiency.

A pulsed plasma thruster provides for an advanced lightweight design with solid propellant and predominately electromagnetic thrust in a coaxial geometry. Electromagnetic forces are generated in a plasma by current flowing from a small central electrode to an electrically conducting diverging nozzle electrode. The thruster employs a series of electric current pulses of limited duration and varying frequency between the pair of electrodes creating a series of electric arcs. The electric arcs pass over a propellant surface located between the electrodes, forming a plasma, which is then exhausted from the device to produce thrust. The thruster maintains a low plasma resistance and cavity pressure, which in turn yields strong electromagnetic body forces, resulting in a high efficiency and consistent pulse-to-pulse performance.

The invention discloses a coaxial anode insulating pulse plasma thruster and relates to the technical field of microsatellite thrusters. The coaxial anode insulating pulse plasma thruster comprises acathode, an anode and an insulating barrel sleeving the cathode, wherein the cathode is cylindrical, a discharge end is arranged at the front end of the cathode, the anode is of a cylindrical structure fixed to the outer wall of the insulating barrel, and the inner wall of the anode is in contact with the outer wall of the insulating barrel; an insulating layer wraps the outer surface of the anode; axes of the cathode, the anode and the insulating barrel are superposed; the cylindrical end of the cathode is electrically connected to a negative high voltage terminal of an external circuit; andthe anode is grounded. The anode is wrapped by means of the insulating barrel and the insulating layer, so that a passage where plasmas move toward the anode is blocked, and more plasmas are ejected axially along the insulating barrel, and therefore, the density of a plasma jet is improved. By arranging the insulating barrel, the plasmas under the action of hump potential are ejected axially alongthe insulating barrel to form the plasma jet which is high in energy and good in directionality.

The invention discloses a circuit for a pulse plasma thruster, which comprises an ignition circuit, an energy storage circuit and a control circuit, wherein a singlechip in the control circuit outputs chopped wave signals; and pulse transformers in the ignition circuit and the energy storage circuit charge an ignition capacitor and an energy storage capacitor. When sampling voltages of the positive input ends of two voltage comparators reach a set ignition voltage and a set energy storage voltage respectively, the singlechip stops outputting the chopped wave signals, and after a set delay time, outputs ignition signals which generate trigger pulse high-tension electricity by the pulse transformer in the energy storage circuit, and then the pulse high-tension electricity is discharged to break gas discharge tubes down to produce electric spark to trigger ignition. The circuit has the advantage of realizing quick and controllable charge and accurate triggered ignition.

The invention relates to a pulse plasma thruster based on capillary discharging. The pulse plasma thruster comprises a power supply processing unit, a main capacitor, a semiconductor sparking plug, an ignition circuit, a main discharging circuit, a propellant working medium, a cathode nozzle, an anode and an organic glass shell. According to the pulse plasma thruster, through introducing the cathode nozzle, main discharging current and the moving direction of plasma form certain angle, and electromagnetic acceleration is introduced under the function of a self-inductance magnetic field. Different from the traditional electromagnetic acceleration type pulse plasma thruster, the pulse plasma thruster based on capillary discharging fully utilizes an electric heating acceleration mechanism to improve the energy utilization efficiency, can improve the overall efficiency of a system under the low-power level, and is particularly suitable for the low-power application site of a microsatellite.

The invention discloses a micropulse plasma thruster which is common anode type; cathode plates are symmetrically arranged at the periphery of an anode of the micropulse plasma thruster, a propellant is arranged between the anode and the cathode plates, and discharge chambers are formed in a space among the anode, the cathode plates and the propellant; anti-creeping ceramic insulating plates are arranged at the sides of the propellant; a cathode of a capacitor is connected with the cathode plates; an anode of the capacitor is connected with the anode; and spark plugs are arranged on the cathode plates. The invention provides a concept of a parallel-plate common-anode type micropulse plasma thruster based on an existing relatively-mature pulse plasma thruster technology for feeding the propellant on the tails of the parallel plates, and the meaning of the concept is that singe cathode plate is changed into four same cathode plates which are symmetrically arranged at the periphery of an anode plate with a hollow structure on the basis of the existing mature pulse plasma ion thruster design, so that four same discharge chamber structural designs are formed, impulse bit is improved while high specific impulse is kept, and therefore, the purpose of improving total impulse is realized.

The invention provides a laser ablation pulsed plasma thruster. The laser ablation pulsed plasma thruster comprises a power processing unit, a capacitor unit, a working medium, a working medium supply device, a cathode, an anode and a laser generating mechanism. The power processing unit is connected with the capacitor unit through a transmission line. The positive output end and the negative output end of the capacitor unit are connected to the cathode and the anode through transmission lines correspondingly. The capacitor unit, the transmission lines, the cathode and the anode form a discharging loop, and gas between the cathode and the anode can be ionized and accelerated. A discharging channel is formed between the cathode and the anode. The working medium supply device for fixing and conveying the working medium is arranged at one end of the discharging channel, and the working medium stretches into the discharging channel from the end. Gaps exist between the working medium and the cathode as well as between the working medium and the anode. The laser generating mechanism emits laser beams into the discharging channel to ablate the working medium, the laser beams continuously ablate the working medium to generate part of ionized gas and particulate matters, the ionized gas and the particulate matters enter the discharging channel to form plasma jets moving along the discharging channel, and thrust is generated. The laser ablation pulsed plasma thruster is high in specific impulse, total impulse, working medium utilization rate and control precision.

A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) and a method of making the pulsed plasma thruster are disclosed. The PPT includes no moving parts and is able to achieve a small size. The PPT is also designed to facilitate easy and rapid manufacture. The process for making the PPT uses known techniques for making printed circuit board devices. Another PPT also has no moving parts and uses a liquid fuel that is progressively advanced by capillary action.

The invention discloses a multi-section type high-efficiency pulse plasma thruster, and belongs to the field of micro-nano satellite micro-propulsion. The thruster is mainly composed of a one-sectionanode, a one-section cathode, a two-section anode, a two-section cathode, an insulation section, a trigger electrode, a trigger working medium, an energy storage capacitor set, a propellant, a coatinglayer and an outer shell body; the electrodes of the thruster are divided into two sections, each section of electrodes is provided with a voltage through a respective energy storage capacitor, so that the total energy distributed to different capacitors discharging at different positions are realized, so that a propellant ablation ionization process and a plasma acceleration process are separated, more energy is enabled to be used for the plasma acceleration process, and the whole acceleration efficiency of the thruster can be improved. A small amount of plasma is generated by triggering theworking medium which is triggered through a trigger electrode, the breakdown voltage between one-section electrode is greatly reduced to facilitate the triggering of initial discharge, and then the reliability of the operation of the thruster is further improved; and the thruster is suitable for application occasions of low-power wiener satellites, and meets corresponding task thrust requirements.

The invention relates to a sectioned-anode pulse plasma thruster with a high specific impulse. The sectioned-anode pulse plasma thruster with the high specific impulse comprises a cathode, an anode, an electric arc, a spark plug, a propellant, an energy storage capacitor, a power supply, a ground, and an insulation block, wherein the insulation block divides the anode into an upstream anode and adownstream anode; the power supply charges the energy storage capacitor, and the two ends of the energy storage capacitor are connected with the cathode and the upstream anode separately; the spark plug generates electrons to trigger the electric arc, and the electric arc is struck from the cathode to the upstream anode along the surface of the propellant; the upstream anode is connected with thedownstream anode through a conductive wire; and plasmas obtained through ionization on the surface of the propellant are ejected in an accelerated manner under the electromagnetic force action of theupstream anode and the downstream anode to form a thrust. According to the sectioned-anode pulse plasma thruster with the high specific impulse, the sectioned anode is adopted, so that limit on the electric arc and increasing for a local current density are realized; and a migration phenomenon of the electric arc is prevented by arranging the insulation block in front of an attachment point of theelectric arc, and a high temperature and a high current density of the surface of the propellant can be continuously kept, so that the thrust, specific impulse, ablation amount and efficiency of thethruster are increased.

The invention relates to an air-breathing pulsed plasma thruster which comprises an air collection device, a flow adjusting device, an air inlet passage, a storage tank, an air inlet spray pipe, an anode, a cathode, a discharge chamber housing, a spark plug, a power system and an energy-storage capacitor. High-speed air enters the air collection device, and enters the storage tank through a flow adjusting valve, so that the disturbance of the high-speed air is reduced; before the air enters a discharge passage, air flow is adjusted; the energy-storage capacitor is charged by the power system,so that a high voltage is formed between the anode and the cathode, inflow air enters a discharge passage through the air inlet spray pipe, and charged particles are generated through the ignition ofthe spark plug to enable the electrodes to be conducted to discharge; and under the jointed effect of the magnetic field formed in a loop current and an electric field formed between the electrodes, aplasma generates electro-magnetic acceleration and is sprayed out from the discharge cavity housing, so that a thrust is generated.

A system and method provides a fault-tolerant multi-channel pulsed plasma thruster system utilizing a control unit and an embedded real time application manipulating low-level timing events with programming, with clear examples of completely flexible control techniques of a scalable micropropulsion system having many pulsed plasma thruster channels, taking into account system aging behavior and specific mission utilization requirements that may change in the mission lifetime. The system and method also covers an architecture lending itself suitable for design of a dedicated FGPA or ASIC that would tightly integrate many channels of thruster components to build a robust, resilient and versatile micropropulsion subsystem for space applications, and indirectly for advanced multi-channel spacecraft instrumentation.

A pulsed plasma thruster and method of operation are provided. The pulsed plasma thruster comprises solid propellant material. A main discharge source provides a pulsed discharge across the propellant material for ablating the propellant material to produce propellant plasma and accelerating the ablated propellant plasma, and an auxiliary discharge source accelerates late ablated propellant plasma without substantially further ablating the propellant material.

The invention discloses a pulsed plasma thruster working medium feeding component. The pulsed plasma thruster working medium feeding component is characterized by simple structure, light weight, and high mechanical properties, and can be integrated and assembled with different pulsed plasma thrusters. High general applicability is provided that a plurality of waist-shaped holes are formed in two sides of a working medium bearing box, and reinforcing bars are formed, a reinforcing bar connecting cover is arranged at the top of the box mouth, a hollow truss structure is formed, weight is reduced, damping is lowered, and the mechanical reliability of the component is improved; and a restraint groove is formed in the center of the bearing box, and an ear piece 15 is arranged on the side face of the corresponding working medium and can be arranged in a restraint groove, so that the restraints of the working medium and spring in the directions of up and down, and left and right are realized,and the stable and reliable directional pushing of the spring and the stable and reliable forward directional movement of the working medium can be effectively guaranteed.

The invention provides a tri-electrode plate type round table coaxial igniter, which is mainly used for a pulse plasma thruster and providing an initial induction plasma for the main discharging process of the thruster. The igniter adopts tri-electrode plate construction, two electrode plates are coaxially and parallelly arranged, and the outermost side electrode plate adopts a round table construction. A connector lug of the igniter is provided with a tri-claw elastic sheet which enables the igniter to be fixedly installed on the electrode plates of the thruster. The inside of the connector lug is connected with the igniter in an inserting mode, and an outside igniting circuit is connected with the two electrode plates inside the igniter. When the igniter discharges, under the effect of voltage between a last but one outermost layer of an anode plate and a central cathode, the surface of a semi-conductor ring between the two electrode plates discharges in a low-energy and self-excitation flash over mode, and a generated plasma induces the surface of a semi-conductor ring between an outermost layer of the cathode plate and the last but one outermost layer of the anode plate to discharge with high efficiency. The coaxial tri-electrode plate type igniter can provide the inducing plasma with high energy and high density and has good work stability. Carbon is not prone to accumulate on the surface of the semi-conductor ring, so that the igniter has long service life.

The invention provides a metal-wire-explosion-enhanced micro-capillary pulsed plasma thruster. The metal-wire-explosion-enhanced micro-capillary pulsed plasma thruster comprises an anode nozzle, a capillary cavity, a trigger electrode, a cathode base and a metal wire; the capillary cavity is formed in one side of the anode nozzle; the trigger electrode is arranged on the capillary cavity; the cathode base is mounted on the side, away from the anode nozzle, of the capillary cavity, and a center hole is formed in the center of the cathode base; and one end of the metal wire penetrates through the center hole and extends into the capillary cavity. The metal-wire-explosion-enhanced micro-capillary pulsed plasma thruster provided by the invention has the advantages of being small in size and wide in output impulse bit expandable range.

The invention discloses a self-breakdown type pulse plasma thruster for an annular cone-shaped structure anode. An annular cone-shaped structure is arranged on the outer surface of an anode, so that alocal strong electric field is between the position and a cathode tube, realization of the self-breakdown discharge is facilitated when the surrounding gas pressure environment is suitable, the thruster can perform stabilized normal operation, components such as an igniter and an ignition circuit are eliminated, and the weight and complexity degree of the system are greatly reduced; and the anode, ceramic and the cathode form a narrow chamber to facilitate collection and even distribution of gas, a gas pressure environment required for self-breakdown discharge is formed, and the thruster canachieve self-breakdown.