Development and Testing of a Low-Power Hall Thruster System

W ITHIN the past 10 years, there has been a significant increase in both the use and the study of miniand microsatellites having initial launch masses of less than a few hundred kilograms. Initially the use of these satellites was almost exclusively the domain of university scientific and amateur missions, whereas commercial and military satellites got larger and more expensive. However, with the recent decrease in budgets and the increasing capabilities of electronics, commercial and military interests have now begun looking at replacing or augmenting some functions of large single satellites with constellations of miniandlor microsatellites. Several constellations of small satellites, having initial launch masses of -500 kg, are being developed for real-time applications such as worldwide mobile communications and non-real-time applications such as paging services, asset tracking and identification, and meter reading. In addition to these commercial uses of miniand microsatellites, there exists a strong interest in the scientific community in using these satellites to accomplish very ambitious science missions. To stimulate the development of miniand microsatellites, the U.S. Air Force and NASA have initiated several component development programs, and NASA has established the Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI). The goal of SSTI is to promote the development of new technologies that reduce the cost and time of getting civil and commercial missions from the drawing board to orbit. In addition, several governmental agencies sponsor both high school and university missions such as TERRIERS, CATSAT, and SNOE. Also under consideration is