Investigation of influence of magnetic field on thrust of high-voltage nanosecond pulsed plasma thruster

The paper presents thrust measurement results for a mockup of pulsed plasma thruster when the discharge area is exposed to an external magnetic field. A pulsed generator with 1J inductive energy storage and semiconductor opening switch serves as a voltage source for the thruster mockup. The voltage pulse duration is 60 ns at amplitude of 250 kV. The applied magnetic field coming up to 8 mT in the discharge field is co-directional with the electric field of the discharger. The thrust pulse measurements show that with the magnetic field available the pulse increases from 1,7 to 2,3 μN·s. The estimates show that under these experimental conditions electrons in the discharge are fixed in a magnetic field. This results in increase of plasma temperature and ionization degree, which causes a pulse increase. Therefore, the magnetic field parallel to the discharge is a factor enabling to improve the performance of pulsed plasma thrusters.