Mimicking Electric Thruster Plumes on Earth to Measure the Radiation Patterns of Cubesat Antennas

An inductive source that generates a cold plasma in a low-pressure bulb has been designed, manufactured and characterized. The plasma distribution is tuned to fit with the simulated one of a Hall Effect Thruster's plume for a cubesat. Installed on a 12U platform, it can be used to measure radiation patterns in the presence of plasma in an anechoic chamber. These can then be compared with those in the absence of plasma, and the effect of the latter on on-board antennas can be assessed. Finally, a comparison is made with the results obtained using a simulation method. This provides a qualitative validation.