STG-CT: High-vacuum plume test facility for chemical thrusters

Abstract

The STG-CT, operated by the DLR Institute for Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Gottingen, is a vacuum facility specically designed to provide and maintain a space-like vacuum environment for researching plume flow and plume impingement from satellite reaction control thrusters. Its unique liquid-helium driven cryopump of 30m2 allows maintaining a background pressure <10^-5 mbar even when molecular hydrogen is a plume constituent.