ISBN 9783843951616

978-3-8439-5161-6, Reihe Raumfahrt

Helmut Koch
Development and Characterization of Low-Power Plasma Facilities for Space Applications

186 Seiten, Dissertation Universität Stuttgart (2022), Hardcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Within the scope of this work, three different plasma facilities were successfully set up and brought to operation: a 3 kW microwave plasma generator (MWG), a 10.5 kW inductively coupled plasma generator (IPG), and an inertial electrostatic confinement plasma generator (IEC).

The first two facilities, the MWG and IPG, produce high enthalpy plasmas. They are intended to be used as supportive plasma wind tunnel facilities for the investigation and development of thermal protection systems for atmospheric entry by providing validation data for aerothermochemistry and material response simulation codes. Both plasma generators work electrodeless and, therefore, can be operated even with highly reactive gases, such as pure oxygen or carbon dioxide. This makes these facilities very well suited for catalytic investigations since no electrode erosion products can pollute the generated plasmas. These high enthalpy facilities were mainly characterized through optical methods, such as emission spectroscopy, Fabry-Perot-Interferometry, and pyrometry.

The third plasma facility, the IEC, is operating at quite low power levels up to 60 W at very low pressure levels down to 1 Pa. In contrast to the other two facilities, this device was investigated regarding its capabilities to be used as a potential future thruster concept for micro and nano satellites.