An experimental investigation was conducted on a laboratory model Hall thruster designed to operate at power levels up to 50 kW. During this investigation the engine's performance was characterized over a range of discharge currents from 10 to 36 A and a range of discharge voltages from 200 to 800 V Operating on the Russian cathode a maximum thrust of 966 mN was measured at 35.6 A and 713.0 V. This corresponded to a specific impulse of 3325 s and an efficiency of 62%. The maximum power the engine was operated at was 25 kW. Additional testing was conducted using a NASA cathode designed for higher current operation. During this testing, thrust over 1 N was measured at 40.2 A and 548.9 V. Several issues related to operation of Hall thrusters at these high powers were encountered.
Performance Evaluation of a 50kW Hall Thruster
37th Aerospace Sciences Meeting ; 1999 ; Reno, NV, United States
1999-12-01
Preprint
No indication
English
Performance Evaluation of an Iodine Vapor Hall Thruster
AIAA | 2011
|Performance Evaluation of a 50 kW Hall Thruster
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999
|Performance Evaluation of an Iodine-Vapor Hall Thruster
Online Contents | 2012
|Performance evaluation of a 50 kW Hall thruster
AIAA | 1999
|