Electric Propulsion (EP) Thruster for Low Power Small Satellites

This proposal identifies thae approaches required to design high efficiency, long life, high I small thrusters of the Hall Effect type (HET) with minimized beam spreading. the trade offs in design configurations and parameters will be characterized and quantified. Particularly the trade offs of efficiency and specific impulse versus dry mass and endurance will be identified in the power input range of 50 - 300 watts electric. In phase one, a promising power level and design concepts will be selected in the <100 Watt to approximately the 300 watt power range to prepare conceptual designs for Phawe two construction, thrust, demonstrations and characterizations. A representative magnetic model of the thruster will be built and tested to verify the effectiveness of the selected concept approach.