Characteristics and Performances of a 100-W Hall Thruster for Microspacecraft

Stéphane Mazouffre (1) , Lou Grimaud (1)

1 ICARE - Institut de Combustion, Aérothermique, Réactivité et Environnement

In this contribution, we examine the characteristics of the ISCT100 thruster, a miniature xenon-fueled 100 W permanent magnet Hall thruster suited for microspacecraft propulsion. The impact of the thruster design upon discharge behavior, ion beam properties and performances is examined as for two discharge channel geometries as well as two values of the magnetic field strength. Thrust, specific impulse and efficiency obtained between 50 W and 200 W are compared to the ones of other low-power Hall thrusters.

Mots clés: Hall thruster; low-power; microspacecraft; performances

Domaines: Plasmas

Stéphane Mazouffre, Lou Grimaud. Characteristics and Performances of a 100-W Hall Thruster for Microspacecraft. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 2018, 46 (2), pp.330-337. ⟨10.1109/TPS.2017.2786402⟩. ⟨hal-02409567⟩