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 Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 (10pp) doi:10.1088/0741-3335/57/1/014005

Electric propulsion for small satellites

Michael Keidar, Taisen Zhuang, Alexey Shashurin, George Teel,
Dereck Chiu, Joseph Lukas, Samudra Haque and Lubos Brieda
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052,
USA
E-mail: keidar@gwu.edu

Received 1 July 2014, revised 28 August 2014

Accepted for publication 1 September 2014
Published 28 November 2014

Abstract
Propulsion is required for satellite motion in outer space. The displacement of a satellite in
space, orbit transfer and its attitude control are the task of space propulsion, which is carried
out by rocket engines. Electric propulsion uses electric energy to energize or accelerate the
propellant. The electric propulsion, which uses electrical energy to accelerate propellant in the
form of plasma, is known as plasma propulsion. Plasma propulsion utilizes the electric energy
to first, ionize the propellant and then, deliver energy to the resulting plasma leading to plasma
acceleration. Many types of plasma thrusters have been developed over last 50 years.
The variety of these devices can be divided into three main categories dependent on the
mechanism of acceleration: (i) electrothermal, (ii) electrostatic and (iii) electromagnetic.
Recent trends in space exploration associate with the paradigm shift towards small and
efficient satellites, or micro- and nano-satellites. A particular example of microthruster
considered in this paper is the micro-cathode arc thruster (µCAT). The µCAT is based on
vacuum arc discharge. Thrust is produced when the arc discharge erodes some of the cathode
at high velocity and is accelerated out the nozzle by a Lorentz force. The thrust amount is
controlled by varying the frequency of pulses with demonstrated range to date of 1–50 Hz
producing thrust ranging from 1 µN to 0.05 mN.

Keywords: plasma propulsion, micropropulsion, micro-cathode arc thruster

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction total propulsive action on a spacecraft, which is measured

by the velocity change. The term delta-V (
V ) constitutes
Propulsion is required for satellite motion in outer space. The the sum of all velocity changes by the spacecraft due
orbit transfer of a satellite, station-keeping and attitude control to thruster operation. In the proximity of large celestial
are performed by utilizing rocket engines. Rocket engines bodies,
V is needed to compensate various ambient forces,
operate according to the basic principle of action and reaction including atmospheric drag, radiation pressure, etc. Such
leading to momentum transfer. A force (thrust) F on the orbital maintenance of the satellite (for instance a GEO
spacecraft is formed by ejecting a jet of gas or plasma in communication satellite) requires
V ∼ 0.6 km s−1 for a
the backward direction. In principle, there are two major 10-year period. The
V of deep-space missions are typically
types of rocket engines, which are distinguished by the energy several km s−1 , and a
V for an orbit transfer is about a few
source used to accelerate the gas, namely chemical and electric km s−1 .
rockets. Electric propulsion uses electric energy to energize or Many types of plasma thrusters have been developed over
accelerate the propellant. The electric propulsion, which uses last 60 years. The variety of these devices can be divided
electrical energy to accelerate propellant in the form of plasma, into three main categories dependent on the mechanism of
is known as plasma propulsion. Plasma propulsion utilizes acceleration [1]: (i) electrothermal, (ii) electrostatic and (iii)
electric energy to first, ionize the propellant, and then, deliver electromagnetic.
energy to the resulting plasma leading to plasma acceleration. (i) Electrothermal thrusters employ electric energy to heat
An important characteristic of the plasma thruster is the propellant. In this case the acceleration mechanism

0741-3335/15/014005+10$33.00 1 © 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

is based on the pressure gradient, which is the same

acceleration mechanism as the one employed in chemical
thrusters.
(ii) Electrostatic thrusters directly employ an electric field to
accelerate ions.
(iii) Electromagnetic thrusters wherein combination of both
electric and magnetic fields are employed to accelerate
the propellant.
Recent trends in space exploration associate with the paradigm
shift towards small and efficient satellites, or micro- and
nano-satellites. There are many near-future space missions
involving science, military, and commercial payloads utilizing
micro- and nano-satellite platforms. These platforms require
very small levels of thrust for very fine attitude control, for
high resolution Earth imaging and astronomy, and very fine
positioning requirements, for spacecraft formation flying and
interferometry missions. Nowadays many basic components
Figure 1. Schematic of the co-axial micro-PPT.
of a spacecraft are being miniaturized allowing micro-satellites
and nano-satellites to be designed and built. To satisfy the
needs of both the low-thrust missions and the small-scale PPTs are currently considered an attractive propulsion
spacecraft, miniaturized propulsion systems are required. option for mass and power limited satellites that require µN s to
It should be pointed out that this paper does not attempt to mN s impulse bits [8–13], One of the most extensively analyzed
address the entire field of micropropulsion in detail, but rather propulsion functions has been attitude control. For missions
describe major issues associated with plasma microthrusters. that require precision pointing, the PPT offers a unique
Some of the mature micropropulsion concepts were described advantage over other technologies as it delivers a small impulse
in a recent review article [2]. Broader view of electric ‘bit’ with high specific impulse (exhaust velocity). Another
propulsion can be found in several dedicated books by Jahn [3], major functional area is station-keeping, which includes drag
Jahn and Choueiri [4], Goebel and Katz [5], and a special issue compensation and formation flying. These functions require
of IEEE Transactions of Plasma Science (vol 36, issue 5, part less than 1 mN of thrust. For instance, interferometer missions
1,2008) [6]. [7] such as ST-3 require sub-millimeter relative positioning
The rest of this paper will be organized as follows. In precision. An electromagnetic PPT was successfully operated
section 2 we will overview various micropropulsion concepts. for pitch axis control on the EO-1 spacecraft [14, 15]. It
In section 3 we will describe in detail one particular example was shown that PPT can be easily scaled down in power
of microthruster, the micro-cathode arc thruster. and size. A micro-PPT (µPPT) is the miniature version
of the traditional PPT, and has been designed at the Air
Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for delivery of very small
2. Plasma-based micropropulsion
impulse bits [16, 17]. AFRL µPPT was developed for a
demonstration mission on TechSat21 [18] and was recently
Micropropulsion devices producing micro-Newton levels of
employed at FalconSatIII. The µPPT can deliver a thrust in the
thrust or micro-Newton-second impulse bits are currently
10 µN range to provide attitude control and station-keeping for
under development in many academic, government and
micro-satellites.
industrial laboratories, and yet the field of micropropulsion
With the µPPT, the discharge across the propellant surface
is still in its infancy [7]. Recall that the most important
issue for microthrusters is propellant management and as ablates a portion of the propellant, ionizes it, and then
such issues related to propellant become critical. In the accelerates it predominantly electromagnetically to generate
next section we describe various propulsion concepts and we the thrust (schematically this thruster is shown in figure 1)
adopt natural division based on the propellant mechanism. In [19, 20]. It is expected that the use of electromagnetic
general, ablative thrusters are the simplest devices in terms of acceleration to create thrust will also lead to relatively high
functionality and in fact were the first to be flown in space. specific impulse.
Recall that both discharge energy (peak current) and
thruster size significantly affect the discharge uniformity in
2.1. Ablative pulsed plasma thruster
the azimuthal and radial directions. Azimuthal non-uniformity
Ablative pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs) have achieved a relates to the current constriction and anode spot formation
high degree of maturity over several decades of research and phenomena. This effect occurs when the discharge current
development, and flight. The first flight of a PPT took place or thruster size exceed some critical value. Non-uniformity
on the Russian Zond 2 spacecraft in 1964. Subsequent flights in discharge associated with the spot mode leads to a much
took place in the US on the geosynchronous MIT Lincoln Lab higher localized ablation rate and causes degradation of the
LES-6 satellite in 1968, 1974 and the US Navy TIP/NOVA specific impulse. On the other hand, small discharge current
satellite in 1981. leads to strong Teflon surface carbonization (charring) and

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

radial non-uniformity, which in turn leads to thruster failure

[20]. The primary mechanism of the charring formation was
identified and is related to carbon backflux. Thruster size
and discharge energy can be optimized by trading between
two conflicting requirements of large pulse energy (to prevent
charring) and small discharge energy (to prevent current
constriction) [21]. Because the charring phenomenon is
completely intolerable and leads to thruster failure, the optimal
discharge energy should be chosen somewhere near the spot
formation limit.

2.2. Micro-laser plasma thruster

Another good example of the ablative type of micro-propulsion

system is the micro-laser-ablation plasma thruster (µ-LPT).
Some variations of this device have been developed by Phipps
Figure 2. Schematics of the vacuum arc thruster (reproduced with
and Luke [22] and Gonzalez and Baker [23]. In [22] a Q- permission from [32]).
switched micro-chip laser, pumped by a cw diode laser, was
used to ablate an aluminum target generating thrust in the range
of 0.3 nN to 3 µN with power consumption of about 5 W and and about 60 µm of absorbing coating. Typically Q∗ (energy
pulse frequency in the range of 1 Hz to 10 kHz. The wide of laser light required to ablate 1 kg of target material) is
dynamic range of thrust levels provided by these devices is about 2 × 107 J kg−1 and the momentum coupling coefficient
is about Cw = 60 − 100 µN W−1 . Computational analysis of
one of their most attractive features.
the T-mode µ-LPT was also developed and compared with an
The micro-Laser-Ablation Plasma Thruster (µ-LPT)
experiment [25]. Generally the LPT models have satisfactorily
developed by Phipps and Luke [22] uses a 1–10 W, high-
described the main features of the thruster, such as ablated mass
brightness diode laser irradiating various absorbing material
and plume expansion.
and substrate combinations (e.g. black ink on paper, black
PVC on KaptonTM ). Laser coupling coefficients on the order
of 60 µN W−1 and specific impulses on the order of 500 s with 2.3. Micro-vacuum arc thruster
a 1 W laser are achieved. One of the major advantages of the µ- One possibility to improve some aspects of PPTs without
LPT is its large dynamic range of impulse bit that can be varied compromising its efficiency is to use metal as a propellant.
between 0.4 to 16 µN s by simply increasing the laser pulse Recent success in the development of vacuum arc technology
duration. In addition, selection of the absorber and substrate has attracted much attention to this technology [26]. Metal
materials allows the specific impulse and laser characteristics propellant will have the following benefits: lower energy
to be tailored for specific mission requirements. consumption per mass ionized (due to the low ionization
The µ-LPT can be operated in two different modes. In potential of metals), high ionization degree, operation with
reflection mode (R), the laser is incident on the target and higher repetition rates since the metal melting temperature is
the ablated material ‘reflects’ from the surface. This mode higher than that of polymer dielectrics used in some current
has the potential problem of leading to deposition of plume thrusters, and high pulse-to-pulse stability. For these reasons
effluent on the laser optics. In transmission mode (T), the a vacuum arc source was developed and used for an ion
laser passes through a transparent substrate film from the back. thruster [27]. This work led to development of a co-axial
The substrate is coated on the other side with an absorbing vacuum arc plasma thruster [28]. Schematically this thruster
material that ablates material away from the laser. This is shown in figure 2. However, the measured efficiency was
approach circumvents the problem of optics contamination reported to be only ∼1.6% which is strongly different from
found with the R-mode. However, the dynamic range of the estimations, leaving ample room for improvement. On
impulse bit available in T-mode is more restrictive. Coating the other hand several problems related to this technology
of the laser optics by plume deposition is one of the major were reported, including lifetime, ion current degradation with
lifetime limitations of the µ-LPT in R-mode. Therefore, there cathode recession, etc [29]. Therefore understanding these
is a certain preference for development of T-mode operation. problems and the efficiency limitations of the vacuum arc
Computational analysis of the R-mode µ-LPT was performed thruster technology is an important issue. In addition, basic
using hybrid particle-in-cell technique [24]. A lens focuses the aspects of vacuum arc thrusters such as thrust mechanism,
laser diode output on a 25 µm diameter spot on the transparent effects of the magnetic field of the thruster operation and
side of a fuel tape. The beam heats an absorbing coating to high its plume, and droplet generation were not studied in detail.
temperature, producing a miniature ablation jet. The material Very recently it was shown that using an axial magnetic field
that is ablated is usually PVC or KaptonTM . Typical parameters (so-called magnetically enhanced vacuum arc thruster) helps
of operation are: power of 2 to 14 W, pulse duration of to improve thruster characteristics, such as specific impulse
3–10 ms. The fuel tape thickness is about 185 µm, composed (plasma velocity) and decrease plasma plume divergence
of 125 µm of transparent backing (usually cellulose acetate) [30, 31].

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Figure 3. (a) µCAT with PPU. (b) Schematic design of the ring shape µCAT, (c) schematic design of co-axial electrodes µCAT.

With the vacuum arc thruster the thrust is created in same inner and outer diameters and a width of about 1 mm
the minute spot on the cathode surface called cathode spots was used as separator between the arc electrodes. Figure 3(c)
(having size of about 10–100 µm) [32]. The high-pressure shows the schematic design of the co-axial µCAT. Instead of
plasma in the cathode spot creates the reaction force (thrust) the ring electrodes, this design employs cylindrically shaped
on the cathode as schematically shown in figure 2. As cathode and anode.
earlier as in the 1930s it was found experimentally that the Figure 4(a) presents a schematic of the thruster and the
plasma stream exerts a reaction force on the cathode, which PPU system. The PPU that has been designed is equipped with
is about 17 ± 3 dyn A−1 (or ∼0.2 mN A−1 ) [33, 34]. It is very an inductive energy storage system as shown in figures 4(a)
important to note that since the reaction force is proportional and (b). When the trigger pulse is applied to a semiconductor
to the arc current, the thrust can be controlled relatively insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switch, the energy is
easily. accumulated in the inductor, while when the trigger pulse ends;
a surge voltage with the magnitude proportional to L dI /dt is
3. Micro-cathode arc thruster generated on the inductor and applied to the electrodes. This
leads to a breakdown and initiation of arc discharge between
Recently, a new thruster configuration, the micro-cathode arc the electrodes. A coil has been applied to the outside of the
thruster (µCAT), was developed motivated by need for an thruster to produce magnetic field as indicated in figure 4(a).
efficient low mass propulsion system. This thruster improves The field strength was simulated using Finite Element Method
on the vacuum arc discharge thruster by applying a specially Magnetics (FEMM) magnetic field simulation software. The
designed external magnetic field. The unique magnetic field direction of the magnetic field could be simply reversed by
conditions achieved with a vacuum arc offer several potential reversing the coil current.
advantages in these devices [35]. The µCAT operates by producing a fully ionized plasma
The µCAT is a simple electric propulsion device and at the inner surface of the electrode. The plasma is formed in
combined with a magnetic coil and an inductive energy the cathode spots, and expands into the vacuum zone under the
storage power processing unit (PPU) results in a low mass applied magnetic field gradient. The plasma then accelerates
(<100 g) system. A picture of the µCAT system and two and expands into vacuum at high velocities, around tens of
types of geometries of a thruster are shown in figures 3(a)– thousands m s−1 , which results in an impulse bit. The effect of
(c). Figure 3(b) shows the schematic design of the ring the magnetic field on the thruster operation is clearly visible
electrodes µCAT (RE-µCAT), which consist of an annular in figure 4(b). This figure shows a CCD camera observation
titanium cathode and a same diameter annular copper anode of the RE µCAT firing in the vacuum chamber with an added
with 1 mm width. The annular ceramic insulator tube having magnetic field (B = 0.3 T) and without.

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Figure 4. (a) Schematic of micro-cathode vacuum arc thruster experimental arrangement. (b) CCD camera observation of plasma plume
with magnetic field (left image, B = 300 mT) and with no magnetic field.

80 200
400
Discharge voltage Pulse duration vs. magnetic field strength
Discharge voltage (V)

Arc current
Pulse duration (µs)

60 150
Arc current (A)

40 100
200

20 50

0 0 0
0 100 200 300 400 0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Time (µs) Magnetic field strength (T)
Figure 5. Evolution of µCAT arc current (blue line) and discharge Figure 6. Thruster pulse duration evolution with different magnetic
voltage (yellow line) in the case of a magnetic field of about 100 mT. field strength.

3.1. Experimental characterization of the micro-CAT of Keidar et al [32] indicated that an axial magnetic field
The arc voltage during the discharge process remains located near the anode region plays an important role, and
approximately constant, yet it is found that this constant indicated that the arc voltage increases when a magnetic field
voltage varies with the magnetic field strength. A typical is applied. The experimental results agree well with the
sample of µCAT arc current and discharge voltage evolution theoretical predication.
is indicated in magnetic field strength of about 100 mT. The plasma formed by a vacuum arc is created on
Typically, during the discharge process, the current that was the cathode surface spots. Previously optical method were
flowing through the solid-state switch is fully transferred to employed and it was observed that the spot consists of either a
the cathode spots, as indicated in the figure 5. Consequently, homogeneous bright region or consists of cells and fragments
the current dropped down from around 80–100 A to 0 A with a typical total size of about 10–100 µm [36, 37]. The
(for around 100–400 µs varied with magnetic field strength µCAT is equipped with a coil that provides magnetic field
as shown in figure 5). Pulse duration is also affected by strength in the range of 0–300 mT. The observation of cathode
a magnetic field as shown in figure 6. A previous work spot motion under magnetic field was first studied in the

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Thruster inner surface

Four Langmuir probes
Ch4 T1 T2 Ch2 2

Ch1

Ch3
Ch4

Ch3 Cathode Spot 1.5

Channels
T3 T4 1
Ch2

0.5
Xη1
0
0
−100 0 100 200 300 400
Time (µs)

Figure 7. Example of four Langmuir probes method to measure the cathode spot rotation speed.
Cathode spot rotation speed (m/s)

Rotation speed vs. magnetic field

4×10−5

Mass Consumption Rate

Mass consumption rate/pulse
Per Pulse (mg/Pulse)
100 vs. Magnetic field strength

2
50

0 0
0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Magnetic Field Strength (T) Magnetic Field Strength (T)

Figure 8. Distribution of µCAT cathode spot rotation speed with Figure 9. Thruster cathode material erosion rate with different
different magnetic field strengths [40]. magnetic field strength.

1960s [38, 39]. It is known that the presence of a transverse mass balance. These results (see figure 9) show that the added
magnetic field at the cathode surface produces arc rotation magnetic field leads to an increase of mass consumption rate by
in the −J × B direction. The observed vacuum arc cathode a factor of 3, from around 1 × 10−5 mg/pulse at zero magnetic
spot rotation has important implications for propulsion. The field strength to around 3 × 10−5 mg/pulse at 0.25 T magnetic
benefits are observable in that the cathode spot rotation leads field. There are two reasons for increased mass consumption
to uniform cathode erosion, which is critical for assuring long rate. Firstly, the magnetic field contributes to the transport
thruster lifetime. The µCAT cathode spot rotation could be of the metal plasma out of the thruster channel. Secondly,
measured by utilizing 4-probe assembly of Langmuir probes. the rotation of cathode spots promotes erosion efficiency by
Four single probes were located along the azimuth direction moving the spot over a larger area of the thruster cathode.
inside the thruster channel, and the four probes ion current
measurement results are shown in figure 7. The rotation 3.2. µCAT plume characterization
speed was calculated using a quarter of circumference of the In this section we present a 2D spatial and temporal evolution of
thruster’s inner surface, divided by the delay time between the plasma plume outside the thruster channel in the presence
each two neighbor peaks. The average rotation speed is of an applied magnetic field. The two-dimensional analysis
shown in figure 8. It was found that the spot rotation speed of plasma flow affected by an externally imposed magnetic
increased about 5 times (from 20 to 100 m s−1 ) as the magnet field was performed by Keidar and co-workers [42–44]. The
field strength increased (from 0 to 300 mT). More detailed experimental measurement of µCAT plasma flow was done
descriptions of this effect can be found in [40]. in [45]. In that work, the spatial distribution of plasma was
It was also found that the applied magnetic field increases obtained using a set of axially aligned circular Langmuir
the thruster erosion rate. In [41] the cathode material erosion probes. Each probe consisted of eight concentric circular
rate was reported to increase almost three times when the planar probes separated by an insulating ring that were aligned
magnetic field was increased from zero up to 300 mT. The mass with the thruster axis. Figure 10 presents the 2D ion current
consumption rate was measured utilizing a highly accurate maps for different magnetic field strengths. One can see that

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Figure 10. D spatial distribution of ion current with different magnetic field.

4
Ratio of ion current over arc current
Ratio of ion current over arc

3
current (%)

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Magnetic Field Strength (T)
Figure 12. Measured ion velocity along the axis with magnetic field
Figure 11. The ratio of thruster total ion current over the arc current as a parameter. Reprinted with permission from [47]. Copyright
with different magnetic field. 2011, AIP Publishing LLC.

magnetic field leads to a plasma collimation along magnetic

acceleration of ions in vicinity of the cathode spot. The second
field lines as shown in figure 10. In addition, one can notice the
region, which is about 80–150 mm from the cathode surface
hollow shape of the plasma plume consequent by increasing
is the plasma expansion inside and outside the thruster, where
the magnetic field strength. It can be noticed that the external
magnetic field of the µCAT leads to an improvement of plasma ion acceleration in a magnetic field was observed as shown in
plume transport efficiency along the magnetic field. figure 12. Let us consider a possible mechanism of plasma
The total ion beam current in the plume is a critical acceleration in this region. Plasma flow is subject to the
parameter needed to evaluate the thruster efficiency. It is well electromagnetic force in the divergent magnetic field region:
known that in the case of Ti cathode the maximum ratio of ion
dV
current over arc current is about 8% [46]. As indicated in [45], Mn = jθ Br (1)
the measured µCAT total ion current output with no magnetic dt
field is about 0.06%, yet, when the magnetic field is applied the where M is the ion mass, n is the plasma density, jθ is the
aforementioned efficiency increases up to 3.5%, as shown in azimuthal electron current and Br is the radial component of
figure 11. This translates into approximately 45% of transport the magnetic field. One can estimate the azimuthal electron
efficiency. current density as
ωe
jθ = jr (2)
3.3. Ion velocity in micro-CAT νei
In this section we will discuss the ion acceleration mechanism where jr is the electron radial current density. In the plasma
in the µCAT. Recall that based on our measurements [47] jet outside of the interelectrode gap, the global current is zero
one can identify three characteristics regions. Approximately so that the electron current is equal to the ion current. Thus
up to 80 mm from the cathode is the interelectrode region, in
which plasma is being produced and accelerated by a pressure jer = jir = enVr (3)
gradient due to electron–ion coupling, i.e. by the gas dynamic
mechanism. It should be pointed out that the ion velocity where Vr is the radial component of the ion current. The radial
close to the arc source is independent of the magnetic field, component of the plasma is developed in course of the plasma
which demonstrates that the magnetic field strength utilized in expansion [42] and could be about 0.3 of the axial component
our experiments does not significantly affect the gas dynamic in a large magnetic field.

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Figure 13. Comparison of ion density without (a) and with (b) the applied magnetic field. Thruster components correspond to the figure 3.

Based on the above scenario one can estimate the ion current of 0.4 A. In this configuration, the magnetic field
velocity change in the axial direction as lines form an angle of approximately 15◦ from the cathode

surface at the location of the cathode spot. Since Draco
2e2 Bz Br Vr
z is a 3D code, the axisymmetric geometry is represented by

Vz ≈ . (4) modeling a thin slab, in which the periodic boundary condition
mMνei
was applied to the front and back faces. The simulation
Using the following typical parameters of the plasma jet: B domain can be seen in figure 13. The cathode is shown by
(i.e. both Br and Bz ) ∼ 0.1 T, n ∼ 1020 m−3 , Vr ∼ 104 m s−1 the orange rectangle. The gray rectangle is the insulator,
and
z ∼ 0.01 m one can estimate that
Vz ∼ 104 m s−1 . and the blue shape is the anode. Potential difference of
One can point out that these results are in good agreement 50 V was applied between the electrodes. Electrons and
with experimental measurements. ions were injected from a small control surface located at
It should be pointed out that cathodic arc plasmas include the junction of the cathode and the insulator, at flow rates
macroparticles generated in the cathode spot [46]. The size and corresponding to 0.4 A. We assumed that the beam consisted
density of macroparticles depend on the cathode material and solely of electrons and doubly charged Ti2+ ions [54]. Neutral
arc operation [46]. Typically these are 1–10 µm in diameter particles were not modeled directly, but instead we loaded a
spherical droplets [48]. Presence of macroparticle in the plume constant background density corresponding to 6 × 10−5 Torr.
might raise a concern with respect to thruster contamination. Collisions were included through the Monte Carlo collisions
However, it should be pointed out that macroparticle emission (MCC) scheme with cross-sections determined from analytical
generally decreases in the case of a pulsed arc in comparison models. Momentum transfer and Coulomb collisions were
with dc vacuum arc. In addition, emitted macroparticles considered. The simulation contained 10 × 50 × 226 cells,
interact with high-velocity plasma jet and momentum transfer and approximately 2 million particles. No artificial scaling of
between plasma and macroparticle leads to macroparticle permittivity was performed. Figures 13(a) and 13 (b) show
emission in the direction of jet propagation [49], i.e. away the preliminary results. Comparison of these figures clearly
from the satellite. Since no backflux was determined in the illustrates the influence of the magnetic field. In figure 13(a),
case of micro-CAT one can expect no macroparticle backflux in which there is no magnetic field, the ions are seen to simply
and as such negligible contamination risk. diffuse out from the cathode spot. No significant thrust is
expected to be generated in this configuration. However, the
3.4. Simulation of the µCAT addition of the magnetic field, figure 13(b), clearly shows the
extraction of the ion beam from the thruster as demonstrated
We have also completed an initial numerical analysis of experimentally. Although not shown here, the simulation
the thruster. The primary goal of this investigation was results presented in figure 13(b) indicate that with adding
to demonstrate the feasibility of the numerical approach. a magnetic field, the ion velocity reaches the magnitude of
We were interested in determining whether a fully-kinetic 4 × 104 m s−1 which agrees with the experimental results.
approach, in which both electrons and ions are treated as
particles, is suitable for modeling the turning of the ion
3.5. Comments on comparison of micropropulsion
beam, and the increased ion velocity observed experimentally.
technologies
Various kinetic codes were developed for application in electric
propulsion [50–52]. As such, we set up the simulation The comparison of micropropulsion technologies operating
using the 3D electrostatic particle-in-cell code Draco [53]. in the low powers range of <10 W is presented in table 1.
In this work, two cases are considered. The first case did Utilization of metal propellant allows the µCAT system to
not contain any magnetic field. In the second case, the carry larger amounts of propellant in smaller volume in
background magnetic field was loaded, corresponding to coil comparison with ion thruster and PPT, which utilize gas and

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Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57 (2015) 014005 M Keidar et al

Table 1. Comparison of micropropulsion technologies.

PPT PPT Electrospray Electrospray VAT

µCAT (Clyde Space) (Busek Co) (MIT) (Busek Co) (Alameda)
(GWU) [55, 56] [57–59] [60–62] [57, 58] [63]
System mass (g) 200 160 550 45 1150 600
System volume (cm3 ) 200 200 500 300 500 200
Propellant Metal Teflon Teflon Liquid Liquid Metal
Isp (s) 3000 590 700 3000 800 1500
Propellant mass (g) 40 10 36 20 75 40
Delta-V (for 4 kg satellite) 300 15 63 150 151 151
(m s−1 )
Efficiency (%) 15 4.7 16 71 31 9.4
Thrust-to-mass ratio 0.63 0.03 0.18 0.5 0.65 0.22
(µN g−1 )
Ionization degree High Low Low High High High
Cost Low Low Low High High Low
Technical readiness level 6 7 7 2–3 5 4
(TRL)

Teflon propellants respectively. It is seen that the µCAT References

subsystem has mass and volume characteristics comparable
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