Abstract
A chamber enduring 3,000 bars and an electrical high voltage power system have been designed and installed for studying the characteristics of the plasma produced in electro-thermal chemical propulsion system. In order to test the structural characteristics, polyethylene injectors were used which have 4 or 6 mm inner diameter and several lengths from 15 to 70 mm. The capacitors were charged at the voltages of 5.2, 7.3 and 10.4 kV which correspond to 5.58, 11 and 22.3 kJ in charging energy. The observed resistivities of the plasma injector are close to those predicted by a theoretical model that describes the plasma resistivity according to high current density.