Method and system for a programmable and fault tolerant pulsed plasma thruster

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10006445-B2
Application number	US-201414462127-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2014
Priority date	Feb 18, 2014
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

A system and method provides a fault-tolerant multi-channel pulsed plasma thruster system utilizing a control unit and an embedded real time application manipulating low-level timing events with programming, with clear examples of completely flexible control techniques of a scalable micropropulsion system having many pulsed plasma thruster channels, taking into account system aging behavior and specific mission utilization requirements that may change in the mission lifetime. The system and method also covers an architecture lending itself suitable for design of a dedicated FGPA or ASIC that would tightly integrate many channels of thruster components to build a robust, resilient and versatile micropropulsion subsystem for space applications, and indirectly for advanced multi-channel spacecraft instrumentation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling synchronization of impulse-bits produced by a multi-element pulsed plasma thruster system, the method comprising:
generating at a processing device, a plurality of independent event markers associated with a plurality of events, the plurality of events including:
a first Trigger Pulse activation event, a first Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a first Magnetic Coil activation event, a first Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a first End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a first plasma power unit; and
a second Trigger Pulse activation event, a second Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a second Magnetic Coil activation event, a second Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a second End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a second plasma power unit; and
adjusting the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize a first impulse-bit associated with the first plasma power unit and a second impulse-bit associated with the second plasma power unit, wherein adjusting the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize the first impulse-bit and the second impulse-bit occurs during the first impulse-bit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize the first impulse-bit and the second impulse-bit includes changing timings of one or more of the first Trigger Pulse activation event, the first Trigger Pulse deactivation event, the first Magnetic Coil activation event, the first Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and the first End of Cycle signal event to shorten the first impulse-bit.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating at the processing device, a time-slice count, wherein each of the plurality of independent event markers corresponds to a unique count value;
triggering at the processing device, a particular event of the plurality of events in response to the time-slice count equaling a particular independent event marker associated with the particular event; and,
incrementing at the processing device, the time-slice count.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein operation occurs in real time.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein adjusting the plurality of independent event markers includes modifying, at the processing device, a particular unique count value corresponding to one of the plurality of independent event markers.

6. A system for controlling controlling synchronization of impulse-bits produced by a multi-element pulsed plasma thruster system, the system comprising:
a processing device configured to:
generate a plurality of independent event markers associated with a plurality of events, the plurality of events including:
a first Trigger Pulse activation event, a first Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a first Magnetic Coil activation event, a first Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a first End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a first plasma power unit; and
a second Trigger Pulse activation event, a second Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a second Magnetic Coil activation event, a second Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a second End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a second plasma power unit; and
adjust the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize a first impulse-bit associated with the first plasma power unit and a second impulse-bit associated with the second plasma power unit,
wherein said processing device is configured to adjust the plurality of independent event markers based on a skew between a third impulse-bit associated with the first plasma power unit and a fourth impulse-bit associated with the second plasma power unit.

7. A system for controlling controlling synchronization of impulse-bits produced by a multi-element pulsed plasma thruster system, the system comprising:
a processing device configured to:
generate a plurality of independent event markers associated with a plurality of events, the plurality of events including:
a first Trigger Pulse activation event, a first Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a first Magnetic Coil activation event, a first Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a first End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a first plasma power unit; and
a second Trigger Pulse activation event, a second Trigger Pulse deactivation event, a second Magnetic Coil activation event, a second Magnetic Coil deactivation event, and a second End of Cycle signal event corresponding to a second plasma power unit; and
adjust the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize a first impulse-bit associated with the first plasma power unit and a second impulse-bit associated with the second plasma power unit, wherein the processing device is configured to adjust the plurality of independent event markers after each impulse-bit associated with the first plasma power unit or the second plasma power unit.

8. The system of claim 6 , said processing device further configured to:
generate a time-slice count, wherein each of the plurality of independent event markers corresponds to counter;
trigger a particular event of the plurality of events in response to the time-slice count equaling a particular independent event marker associated with the particular event; and,
increment the time-slice count.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein operation occurs in real time.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein synchronizing the first impulse-bit and the second impulse-bit includes setting one or more event markers associated with the first impulse-bit to different values than corresponding event markers associated with the second impulse-bit.

11. A system for controlling trigger pulse generation in a pulsed plasma thruster system, the system comprising:
a plurality of plasma power units (PPU) including a first PPU and a second PPU;
a primary power distribution device;
at least one backup power distribution device
a plurality of thrusters, each of the plurality of thrusters connected to a respective one of the plurality of PPUs; and
a processing device configured to generate a plurality of independent event markers associated with a plurality of events, the plurality of events including:
a first activation event and a first deactivation event; and
a second activation event and a second deactivation event; and
adjust the plurality of independent event markers to synchronize a first impulse-bit associated with the first PPU and a second impulse-bit associated with the second PPU,
said processing device configured to control sequencing and phasing of operations of the primary power distribution device and the at least one backup power distribution device based on the plurality of independent event markers.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a primary power switch and at least one backup power switch, said processing device configured to control sequencing and phasing of operations of the primary power switch and the at least one backup power switch.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of independent event markers correspond to values of a time slice counter.

Assignees

• Univ George Washington

Inventors

• Haque Samudra

Classifications

• F03H1/0087 Primary

  Electro-dynamic thrusters, e.g. pulsed plasma thrusters · CPC title

• F03H1/0018

  Arrangements or adaptations of power supply systems (for cosmonautic vehicles B64G1/42) · CPC title