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Laser ablation plasma thrusters are an emerging space propulsion concept thatprovides promise for lightweight payload delivery. Predicting the lifetime andperformance of these thrusters hinges on a comprehensive characterization ofthe expansion dynamics of the ablated plasma plume. While state-of-the-arttechniques for simulating plasmas are often particle-based, a grid-based directkinetic solver confers advantages in such a transient and inhomogeneous problemby eliminating statistical noise. A direct kinetic solver includinginterparticle collisions is employed on a plume expansion model problemspanning one dimension each in configuration and velocity space. The highdegree of thermodynamic nonequilibrium inherent in plume expansion ischaracterized, justifying the need for a kinetic rather than a hybrid or fluidsolver. Thruster-relevant metrics such as the momentum flux are also computed.The plume dynamics are observed to be highly inhomogeneous in space withinsufficient time for thermalization in the region preceding the expansionfront, and the theoretical possibility of reducing the local grid resolution byup to two orders of magnitude at the far end of the domain is established.These grid-point requirements are verified via the employment of nonuniformgrids of various expansion ratios, several of which also employ coarsening invelocity space. Longer domain lengths are explored to characterizethruster-scale phenomena and larger ambient pressures are simulated as atestbed to probe facility effects due to collisions with background particles.

Enabling direct kinetic simulation of dense plasma plume expansion for laser ablation plasma thrusters