You're invited to attend

AE Seminar

"An Overview of Optical Diagnostics for Electric Propulsion at JPL"

by

Vernon Chaplin

Electric Propulsion Engineer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Tuesday, August 27
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Guggenheim 442
 

About the Seminar: 
NASA is developing and qualifying electric propulsion systems over a wide range of power levels to take advantage of their enabling capabilities for deep space interplanetary missions.  Optical plasma diagnostics are playing a central role in this development effort, providing non-perturbing local measurements of plasma properties to validate computational models of thruster lifetimes and enhance physical understanding.  This talk will provide an overview of recent research progress in this area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), focusing primarily on laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) applied to Hall thrusters.
 

About the Speaker: 
Dr. Vernon Chaplin is an electric propulsion engineer and technical group lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.  His current research focuses on characterizing the physics of Hall thrusters with non-invasive optical diagnostics and modeling erosion in gridded ion thrusters.  He has contributed to thruster developments from early stage R&D through flight qualification, including recent testing in preparation for the launch of the Psyche mission and the Gateway Power and Propulsion Element.