Abstract
High-speed mercury cadmium telluride photovoltaic detectors sensitive to infrared emission are used in a micropulsed plasma thruster (micro-PPT) to explore the surface-temperature profile throughout the discharge process for an ablative arc over Teflon. Real-time surface-temperature measurements are made after the current pulse ends in a micro-PPT to examine heating methods and ablation characteristics of the Teflon® propellant. Calibration is performed on heated Teflon, experimentally accounting for temperature-dependent variations in emissivity. Time-dependent measurements are taken of the fuel face and used to determine a surface-temperature profile after the arc. Photographs of the arc breakdown are taken with a gated, intensified camera capable of 5-ns shutter times allowing visual interpretation of the arc emission in terms of nonaxisymmetric arc spoking effects. The data are analyzed to calculate Teflon vapor pressure and expected impulse bit contribution of the neutral vapor liberated from the fuel face during the ablative cooling process. The cooling profile is also compared with predictions from a code that is under development. Finally, methods for using this sensing technique during the current pulse of the thruster are proposed and evaluated for future applications.
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