Thrust Performance of a Low Power Hall Thruster

Abstract

For the application of Hall thrusters to small satellites, we have been developing a low power Hall thruster. As an initial test, we evaluated the thrust performance of a 50 W class miniature Hall thruster developed at Kyushu University. The outer diameter and the length of the acceleration channel are 18 mm and 7 mm, respectively. A torsional type thrust stand was developed, since the estimated thrust is 1-3 mN, which is too small to be measured by means of a conventional pendulum type thrust stand for Hall thrusts. The uncertainty of this thrust stand is less than 10% at 2 mN with calibration. The thrust, the discharge current, specific impulse and the thrust efficiency at xenon mass flow rate of 0.30 mg/s and discharge voltage of 125 V were 1.7 mN, 0.35 A, 600 sec and 11.4%, respectively. The thrust increased with an increase in discharge voltage and the thrust became 3.1 mN at discharge voltage of 250 V.