SBIR/STTR Research Award
High Density Plasma Thruster
Award amount
$150,000Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IAward year
2020Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Defense
- Branch
- Air Force
- Recipient company
- BUSEK CO., INC.
- Proposal award date
- 2020-03-06
- Contract end date
- 2020-12-06
- UEI
- SATYSBWG3FL7
- Solicitation number
- 19.2
- Topic code
- AF192-044
Research abstract
In this proposed SBIR program, Busek Co. Inc. will begin development of a high power, high thrust plasma thruster system for future flight opportunities. The technology has many potential propellants including xenon, krypton, iodine, and products of AF-M315E. The proposed Closed Electron Drift thruster is designed to operate at high power density, enabling pseudo-impulsive orbital maneuvers. Instead of being powered directly by solar arrays, it would be powered by a high power energy storage device. The power density of the plasma discharge will be many times higher than what is found in a typical Hall effect thruster. The Phase I effort will include system analysis, modeling, proof of concept experiments, and plans for high density thruster to be built and tested in Phase II.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Compact Stored Propellant Propulsion System for VLEO Satellites
- Thermal Improvement on 1 Newton ASCENT Thruster Valve Assembly (TVA)
- High Total Impulse BET-MAX System for Small-Sat Deorbiting
- High Power Density 10 kW Power Processing Unit for High Power Hall Thrusters
- Qualification of a Satellite on Umbilical Line (SOUL) System for Active Debris Removal (ADR)
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
Research funding history
248 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (1988–2026). Reported award amounts total $87,675,405. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II, Phase II – Direct to Phase II
Agencies: Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation