Design and Operations of Hall Thruster with Segmented Electrodes
N.J. Fisch, Y. Raitses, L.A. Dorf, and A.A. Litvak
Date of PPPL Report: December 1999
Submitted to: Journal Propulsion and Power
Principles of the Hall thruster with segmented electrodes are explored. A suitable vacuum facility was put into service. For purposes of comparison between segmented and conventional thruster approaches, a modular laboratory prototype thruster was designed and built. Under conventional operation, the thruster achieves state-of-the-art efficiencies (56 percent at 300 V and 890 W). Very preliminary results under operation with segmented electrodes are also described.