Disclosed is a closed drift, narrow channel Hall thruster configured to operate at powers <30 W. The thruster includes a thruster body and a neutralizing cathode. The thruster body includes a magnetic circuit including a magnetic source and two magnetic poles, a metallic, annular thruster channel formed by the magnetic poles with a downstream channel width smaller than about 3 mm and an upstream channel width greater than the downstream channel width, an anode positioned at the channel's entry, and a gas distributor configured to release a propellant gas into the thruster channel. The magnetic circuit is configured to generate a magnetic field in the thruster channel for trapping electrons therein. The channel walls (the magnetic poles) are under bias potential. The anode and the cathode are configured to generate a substantially axial electric field in the thruster channel. In operation, propellant gas atoms ionized by trapped electrons in the thruster channel, accelerate axially, exiting via the channel's exit.
Ignition process for narrow channel hall thruster
2023-10-10
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
Hall-Effect Thruster Channel Surface Properties Investigation
Online Contents | 2012
|Hall Thruster with a Sectioned Conducting Channel
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2000
|