Comparative Study on Experimental Data of Plasma Plumes in Space

Abstract

With the development of electric propulsion technology, the measurement of plasma parameters has been widely used in the field of aerospace. In the process of electric propulsion performance examination and test, the plasma parameters are indispensable to the analysis of electric propulsion performance. Plasma parameters such as electron temperature, plasma density, plasma flux density play important roles in plasma technology, which are the important basis to determine plasma state of electric propulsion. There has a variety of diagnosis method for Plasma electric propulsion. But the radio frequency, electric and magnetic fields often existed in electric propulsion environment. Therefore, It is necessary to use the Retarding potential analyzer (RPA) and Langmuir probe (ALP) together to test the plasma parameters. Experiment data can be mutually verified to effectively improve the accuracy and reliability of test data. The test data of xenon and nitrogen plume obtained in this experiment is of great significance for the in-depth study of helical wave propulsion.