Pulsed plasma thruster

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Electrostatic plasma propulsion engine built in USSR in 1962-1965 to propel spacecrafts to Solar system planets. Have much higher exhaust velocity than chemical propulsion engines. According to Tsiolkovsky equation this results in proportionally higher final velocity of propelled craft.

First plasma propulsion engine was successfully used to propel Zond-2 vehicle from parking at Earth orbit to Mars in Nov 30, 1964.

The principle of operation is acceleration of ions in strong electric field to the velocities of the order of hundreds km/s - which is much higher than thermal velocity of chemical engines. The active gas used in russian plasma propulsion engines is argon and helium.

Chemical propulsion engines with their limited by rate of chemical reaction exaust velocity (which is in the range of 2-3 km/s) become exponentially ineffective (see Tsiolkovsky equation) to achieve high interplanetary speeds (which in Solar system is in 20-70 km/s range).

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