UNIVERSITY OF PISA Faculty of Engineering Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering Laurea specialistica in Ingegneria Aerospaziale Master Thesis Investigation of Instabilities and Scaling Effects on steady-state Applied-Field magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster SX3 Supervisors: Prof. Mariano Andrenucci University of Pisa Prof. Georg Herdrich University of Stuttgart Dipl. -Ing. Adam Boxberger University of Stuttgart Candidate: Luca Malacci ID number: 447866 Academic Year 2013/2014