Operation and Performance of a Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster at Ultrahigh Current Densities on Xenon and Krypton

Su, Leanne L.; Roberts, Parker J.; Gill, Tate; Hurley, William; Marks, Thomas A.; Sercel, Christopher L.; Allen, Madison; Whittaker, Collin B.; Viges, Eric; Jorns, Benjamin

doi:10.2514/6.2023-0842

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…However, there are promising potential propellants in the form of different noble gases, molecular propellants, and condensable elements like krypton, iodine, zinc, and bismuth (Tirila et al, 2023). By elevating the thruster current density, we can effectively enhance krypton's performance compared to xenon (Su et al, 2023). SpaceX's Starlink constellation is a major user of hall thrusters.…”

Section: Hall Effect Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the Future: A Survey of Electric Propulsion Systems and their Pivotal Role in Shaping the Next Frontier of Space Exploration

Abdulbaqi,

Olajide,

Akangbe

2023

Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology

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Electric propulsion represents the future of space travel, which is a promising technology for Earth-orbital and deep space missions, including potential applications in human Mars missions. The past decade has witnessed substantial progress in the conceptualization and experimentation of electric thrusters and their propellants, signaling a transformative era in space exploration. This review provides an overview of the comparison between electric and chemical propulsion, followed by a detailed examination of current research and development on various types of electric propulsion thrusters. The discussion encompasses the adoption of diverse technologies to enhance the scalability of these thrusters, presenting a comprehensive outlook on the future of space exploration.

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Section: Hall Effect Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the Future: A Survey of Electric Propulsion Systems and their Pivotal Role in Shaping the Next Frontier of Space Exploration

Abdulbaqi,

Olajide,

Akangbe

2023

Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology

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“…A Hall thruster is an electric propulsion device that ionizes a propellant gas with electrons confined by a magnetic field before accelerating the propellant ions with an electrostatic field. They have attracted the attention of electric propulsion researchers owing to their simple structure, long service life, economic characteristics, and high reliability [3][4][5][6]. Recently, interest in Hall thrusters has shifted from GEO station-keeping to deep-space exploration, which has also promoted the development of high-power and highspecific-impulse Hall thrusters [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the specific impulse of Hall thrusters using a wide channel design

Liu,

Li,

Jiang

et al. 2024

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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This paper proposes increasing the width of the discharge channel to improve the specific impulse of Hall thrusters. In our study, we significantly increased the achievable channel width by optimizing the magnetic circuit topology, and the design freedom of the Hall thruster was improved. A prototype of a wide-channel high-specific-impulse Hall thruster was designed and experimentally verified. The effects of channel width on the discharge process and the characteristics of an aft-loaded magnetic field Hall thruster were investigated. The high-intensity luminous region did not diffuse radially with an increase in the channel width, and the plasma was always concentrated near the channel centerline. A wider channel is more conducive for improving the propellant utilization efficiency, thereby effectively improving the specific impulse of the Hall thruster. By optimizing the discharge channel width, the upper limit of the discharge voltage was increased, and the maximum specific impulse was increased from 3170 to 3794 s, a relative improvement of 20%. The effect of the specific impulse improvement at the same discharge voltage was analyzed and discussed. The results of this study are significant for the design of high-specific-impulse Hall thrusters.

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“…More recently, we have investigated increasing the discharge current on shielded Hall thrusters [21,22] and saw the performance gap close at sufficiently high currents. This behavior is in line with observations on unshielded thrusters [13,14,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in mass utilization of a magnetically shielded Hall thruster operating on xenon and krypton

Su,

Marks,

Jorns

2024

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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The trends in mass utilization with increasing discharge voltage and current are investigated for a magnetically shielded Hall thruster operating on xenon and krypton. A 9-kW class shielded thruster is operated with discharge voltages from 300 to 600 V and discharge currents from 15 to 30 A on xenon and krypton. Experimental measurements of discharge current, thrust, anode efficiency, and ion velocity as a function of axial position are used to calibrate a multi-fluid 2D Hall thruster code at all operating conditions. The results of these calibrated simulations are employed to interrogate the plasma properties inside the thruster channel. A simplified 0D model for mass utilization evaluated on spatial averages of the simulated plasma parameters is employed to interpret the response of this efficiency mode with power for each propellant. It is found that with both higher voltage and current, mass utilization increases for both gases and their relative gap in this efficiency decreases. This can be attributed to the higher plasma densities and ionization rate coefficients at high voltage, and solely to higher plasma densities at high current. The driving factors for the increase in mass utilization are examined in the context of its nonlinear response to internal plasma properties. The behavior of mass utilization is also discussed in context of the gap in overall efficiency between the propellants. Finally, the implications of these results for improving the performance of high power Hall thrusters operating on krypton are examined.

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Operation and Performance of a Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster at Ultrahigh Current Densities on Xenon and Krypton

Cited by 11 publications

References 44 publications

Unveiling the Future: A Survey of Electric Propulsion Systems and their Pivotal Role in Shaping the Next Frontier of Space Exploration

Unveiling the Future: A Survey of Electric Propulsion Systems and their Pivotal Role in Shaping the Next Frontier of Space Exploration

Improving the specific impulse of Hall thrusters using a wide channel design

Trends in mass utilization of a magnetically shielded Hall thruster operating on xenon and krypton

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