Research / Investigación
Plasma streams are employed for space propulsion of spacecrafs and our group recently patented a plasma thruster for in-orbit propulsion of small satellites. This Alternative Low Power Plasma Engine (ALPHIE) was developed in collaboration with the Aernnova Aerospace company. The fundamentals of in-space electric propulsion are introduced in the following web page intended for non-specialists,
• Fundamentals of in-space electric propulsion
and the basic information of ALPHIE plasma thruster is available in the file: ALPHIEinformation.zip
In our experiments, the physical properties of plasmas are determined using electric probes that allow local measurements of the plasma potential, density of electric charges and the electron and ion energy spectra. This requires of a combination of three different diagnostics, the Langmuir and emissive probes together with the retarded field energy analyzer. The following web page introduces the basis of Langmuir and emissive probe diagnostics,
• Introduction to Langmuir and emissive probe diagnostics
Electric current transport in low density plasmas can give rise to stationary electric charge distribution that develop in the bulk. The following web page introduces these stationary visible plasma potential Electric current transport in low density plasmas can give rise to stationary electric charge distributions in the plasm bulk. The following wep page introduces these visible structures constituted by a double layer electric potential profile, also called fireballs that have been observed in different experiments.
• Plasma double layer experiments
The following information is intended to introduce the readers to the plasma state of condensed matter, space plasmas and their applications in space technology,
• Plasmas in Space and in the laboratory DOI:10.1088/2053-2571/aae132ch1
that can be read for free. It is the first chapter of the book,
L. Conde.
An Introduction to Plasma Physics and its Space Applications. Volume 1: Fundamentals
and elementary processes.
Morgan & Claypool Publishers / IOP Publishing (2018).
Online ISBN: 978-1-64327-174-3; Print ISBN: 978-1-64327-171-2
Also, the basis of the physical description of the plasma state of condensed matter is discussed the first chapter of the book,
• Introduction to the physical models for plasmas DOI:10.1088/978-0-7503-3543-0ch1
L. Conde.
An Introduction to Plasma Physics and its Space Applications. Volume 2:
Basic equations and applications.
IOP Publishing (2020).
Online ISBN: 978-0-7503-3543-0; Print ISBN: 978-0-7503-3541-6
