Plasma injectors for onboard use

Reliable and operationally convenient flight-designed alkaline plasma injectors are applicable for space experimentation on:
- space plasmadynamics;
- spacecraft charge control;
- plasma contactor of tethered systems;
- problem of interaction between RF signals and plasma plumes of electric thrusters.

Basic versions of hardware have been qualified to meet the launch requirements generally applied to Soviet boosters payloads.
Flight hardware is provided with certificated test equipment which could be delivered on demand.
EPICURE arcjet of multiplex switching was flight tested on Kosmos satellites.
Single switching muniature arcjet OKA was used for high altitude active experiments on board meteorogical rocket probes.

Both EPICURE and OKA hardware could be updated to meet other requirement in the power consumption range from 1 to 4 kW on demand.

BASIC OPERATIONAL DATA

	EPICURE	OKA
Composition and mass breakdown	Two plasma sorces of 6,5kg each and power processing unit of 6 kg	Plasma injector of 0,9 kg, total 3,4 kg including autonomous power supply and control unit
Propellant	Cesium	Cesium
Propellant weights, kg	0,3	0,1
Mass flow rate, mg/s	30	30
Total power input, kW	2 (28V; 70A)	up to 1 ( 8V; 120 A )
Power supply	Spacecraft 28V d.c. power bus	Battery 14V d.c.
Operational life	more then 120 min	up to 20 min
Operational mode	pulse regime (16s for plasma firing and 8s pause)	pulse regime (4s for plasma firing and 2s pause)
Preheat time	not more then 6 min	not more then 10s