Dr. Tim Smith, Senior Engineer

Email: smith@edapplications.com

Dr. Tim Smith has 7 years of vacuum facility experience with Hall thruster, ion engine, and hollow cathode tests, and 15 years of test experience with optical diagnostics for fluid dynamics. He has designed, built and operated several optical diagnostic systems, both passive (using emission spectroscopy) and active (LIF and optogalvanic spectroscopy with ring dye and extended-cavity diode lasers). For his dissertation research, he developed and validated a novel method for deconvolving xenon ion velocity distributions from laser-induced fluorescence spectra, allowing unprecedented nonintrusive measurements of Hall thruster and ion engine plumes.

Dr. Smith is currently the Principal Investigator on a NASA SBIR to develop a low intrusive fiber optic plug for TPS materials. His research also involves the development of advanced optical diagnostics, particularly methods to measure the erosion rate of Hall thruster discharge chambers and advanced ion engine grids.

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