Polymers as fuel for laser-based microthrusters: An investigation of thrust, material, plasma and shockwave properties

Abstract

The micro-laser plasma thruster (μ-LPT) is a micropropulsion device, designed for steering and propelling of small satellites (1–10 kg). A laser is focused onto a polymer layer on a substrate to form a plasma, which produces the thrust that is used to control the satellite motion. Three different polymers were tested to understand the influence of their specific properties on the thrust performance: poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) as a low-energetic material, a glycidyl azide polymer (GAP), and poly(vinyl nitrate) (PVN) as high-energetic polymers. Different absorbers (carbon nanoparticles or an IR dye) were added to the polymer to achieve absorption at the irradiation wavelength (1064 nm). The influence of the material and dopant properties on the decomposition characteristics and the energy release were investigated by thrust measurements and ns-shadowgraphy. Mass spectrometry and time- and space-resolved plasma emission spectroscopy in air and vacuum were used to analyze the degree of fragmentation as function of the material properties. The kinetic energies of selected fragments were calculated from the spectra. GAP + C showed the best performance in all measurements at high fluences, while at low fluences PVN + C revealed the best performance.