Inductively Coupled Plasma Facilities for Testing of Thermal Protection Materials

This is an overview of existing facilities for testing of thermal protection materials (TPM) for spacecraft based on the inductively plasma (ICP) sources with power over 100 kW. As a chief designer of the ICP plasma torch systems, the author provides the main parameters, describes design of the torches and power supplies, analyzes efficiency of plasma generation, and discusses trends in the ICP-based facilities development with power from 100 kW to 1 MW. The overview is based on data from the open sources and real parameters of APT-100 and −200 plasma systems currently in production by Applied Plasma Technologies, Corporation, Marshall, VA, USA.