A variation of a hanging pendulum thrust stand capable of measuring the performance of an electric thruster operating in the vertical orientation is presented. The vertical orientation of the thruster dictates that the thruster must be horizontally offset from the pendulum pivot arm, necessitating the use of a counterweight system to provide a neutrally stable system. Motion of the pendulum arm...

MODELING A HALL THRUSTER FROM ANODE TO PLUME FAR FIELD AFOSR GRANT FA9550-05-l-0042 lain D. Boyd Department of Aerospace Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2140 Hall thrusters represent an efficient form of electric propulsion that is being implemented on USAF satellites for station-keeping tasks. Numerical simulation of the plasma flow inside Hall thrusters is playing an in...

Development of alternative propellants for Hall thruster operation is an active area of research. Xenon is the current propellant of choice for Hall thrusters, but can be costly in large thrusters and for extended test periods. Condensible propellants may offer an alternative to xenon, as they will not require costly active pumping to remove from a test facility, and may be less expensive to pu...

With the increasing use of smart weapons and sensors, there is a need to consider potential areas of improvement that could positively affect large numbers of systems with common concepts and approaches. One area that lends itself to this desire is the improvement of high precision high bandwidth antenna and mirror steering systems that can be utilized across a broad range of sensor systems. Po...

This paper examines dynamical models for bladedpropeller type marine thrusters. Previously reported thruster dynamics models are reviewed, and a new simplified model is proposed. Experimental testing of both the transient and steady-state performance of a marine thruster corroborates previously reported data, validates the simplified thruster model, and raises new questions.

Development of alternative propellants for Hall thruster operation is an active area of research. Xenon is the current propellant of choice for Hall thrusters, but can be costly in large thrusters and for extended test periods. Condensible propellants may offer an alternative to xenon, as they will not require costly active pumping to remove from a test facility, and may be less expensive to pu...

A 10 cm stand-alone gridded ion thruster discharge chamber based on a laboratory demonstration model that utilized a planar inductive antenna was designed and fabricated. The source features multipole confinement which has been shown to dramatically improve performance based on significant increases in ion density observed in demonstration tests. The thruster design considerations and the perfo...

Abstract. The Hall thruster is an advanced spacecraft propulsion system that uses electrical power provided by the spacecraft to generate thrust by ionizing and accelerating ions to high velocities. While Hall thrusters have been tested in laboratories for nearly forty years and first flew in space some thirty years ago, little is known about the plasma within these devices. This lack of knowle...

With the aim to reduce cost and increase reliability, MEMS technology penetrates space market and new MEMS components are developed for Space application. Among them, micropropulsion devices is an active field of technological research. Several micropropulsion option are under development : the thrust is produced either from a electrical source (electrical thruster) or a chemical source (chemic...

A sub-micronewton level thrust stand is used to evaluate the performance of five different microthrusters. Using a torsional balance design, the JPL microthrust stand (μTS) is capable of measuring steady-state thrust as low as 1 μN with sub-micronewton resolution and an impulse as low as 1 μNs with sub-micronewton-second resolution. The μTS can support a test object with a mass as large as 10 k...