Analytical Model for Performance Evaluation of Ablative Plasma Pulsed Thruster

This analytical model was created for a future version of micro-satellite µsat (also known as Victor) which was developed and built by the Centro de Investigaciones Aplicadas (IUA) in Argentina. Victor was launched on 29 August 1996 by Molniya-M from Plesetsk.

The model allows to make a quick evaluation of Ablative Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (APPT) performances for preliminary design purposes. It works very well for capacitors delivering low energies and for APPT coaxial geometries.

The paper hereafter presents the very first results. An improved version of this paper giving better predictions was published on Journal of Propulsion of Power (year 2004, vol. 20, n°6, pages 970 to 977) available on http://www.aiaa.org.

Analytical Model for Performance Evaluation of Ablative Plasma Pulsed Thruster