The INNPULSE project, sponsored by the Toulouse RTRA STAE foundation is devoted to the study and design of innovative concepts of plasma thrusters for small satellites or able to operate in a multimode regime with separate control of thrust and specific impulse.

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Two concepts are studied and developed:

• Pulsed plasma thrusters using solid or liquid propellant

• Innovative design of double stage thruster with an inductive ionization stage and a Hall acceleration stage.

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The project brings together the specific expertise of the partners in experimental diagnostics and modeling and simulation in order to improve the characterization and physical understanding of thrusters whose functional demonstration has to be done (pulsed vacuum arc thruster with solid propellant developed in Toulouse by the COMAT company) or whose concept is promising but needs to be further confirmed (double stage thruster developed at the LAPLACE lab with support from CNES). The academic partners are LAPLACE, IMFT, IMT, and ONERA.