Endurance testing of a pulsed plasma thruster for nanosatellites

•A miniaturized coaxial µPPT for CubeSat propulsion is presented and investigated.•Experimental direct thrust measurement is conducted using a µNs thrust balance.•Long duration thrust measurements for more than 400,000 ignitions are presented.•Reliability and Δv capability of the thruster is determined in the context of CubeSat propulsion.•Mass bit determination throughout 7,00,000 ignitions is presented.

The mission complexity of Nanosatellites has increased tremendously in recent years, but their mission range is limited due to the lack of an active orbit control or ∆v capability. Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPT), featuring structural simplicity and very low power consumption are a prime candidate for such applications. However, the required miniaturization of standard PPTs and the adaption to the low power consumption is not straightforward. Most investigated systems have failed to show the required lifetime. The present coaxial design has shown a lifetime of up to 1 million discharges at discharge energies of 1.8 J in previous studies. The present paper focuses on performance characterizations of this design. For this purpose direct thrust measurements with a µN thrust balance were conducted. Thrust measurements in conjunction with mass bit determination allowed a comprehensive assessment. Based on those measurements the present µPPT has a total impulses capability of approximately I≈1.7 Ns, an average mass bit of 0.37 µg s−1 and an average specific impulse of Isp≈904 s. All tests have shown very good EM compatibility of the PPT with the electronics of the flight-like printed circuit board. Consequently, a complete µPPT unit can provide a ∆v change of 5.1 m/s or 2.6 m/s to a standard 1-unit or 2-unit CubeSat respectively.