The performance of many Hall thrusters has been shown to exhibit sensitivity to background pressure in ground-based test facilities, and this property can have an impact on the prediction of in-space performance. The SPT-140 Hall thruster, similar in design to the SPT-100 thruster, which shows such sensitivity, was subjected to a series of tests to characterize the effects of background pressure on thruster performance over a discharge power range of 0.9–4.5 kW. Thrust sensitivity to pressure, in an absolute sense, was largest at 4.5 kW and decreased with power until there was little-to-no measurable effect at 0.9 kW. In a relative sense, thrust sensitivity was similar at all powers above 0.9 kW with about 2–4% higher thrust measured at 10    μ Torr than at the lowest operating pressure. Thruster magnetic field sensitivity, examined as a function of magnet current, did not have a strong dependence on facility pressure.


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    Title :

    Effects of Background Pressure on SPT-140 Hall Thruster Performance



    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2020-09-01




    Type of media :

    Conference paper , Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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