Performance enhancement of an argon-based propellant in a Hall thruster

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Finding alternatives to xenon as a propellant is essential for reducing the launching cost of all-electric satellites and for achieving low-cost electric propulsion, especially using Hall thrusters. Argon is a candidate as such a low-cost propellant, but it has never been used practically owing to its poor performance. We attempted two methods to improve the thruster performance: (1) by mixing xenon in argon propellant and (2) by modifying the thruster structure for the argon propellant. Modifying the thruster structure yielded an increase in the specific impulse from 482 to 1500 s using pure argon. Also, when we used an argon-xenon mixture gas as propellant, the thruster performance increased under argon-rich conditions using the modified thruster.