TERMIUM Plus^®

Record 1,  Textual support,  English

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

The pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) with solid propellant is used for low power propulsion systems; typically with an average power less than thirty watts. Capacitor stored electrical energy is used to create a pulsed arc discharge across the face of a block of propellant, teflon in most implementations to date. The combination of thermal flux, particle bombardment and surface reactions ablates and ionises a small amount of the solid material ... The peak discharge current is high, in the region of tens of kA. The self-induced magnetic field acts on the ions moving in the electric field creating the discharge to create a Lorentz body force that accelerates the plasma. Teflon PPTs have enjoyed limited use in east-west station keeping and sun pointing applications. PPTs do not produce sufficient thrust to be considered as candidates to provide primary propulsion of future out of Earth orbit missions and were not considered for SMART-1.  2, record 1, English, - pulsed%20plasma%20thruster

Record 1,  Textual support,  French

Record 1,  Textual support,  Spanish