Developmental Status of a 100-kW Class Laboratory Nested channel Hall Thruster

Currently in the United States there is increasing commercial and governmental interest in Hall-effect thrusters for high power applications. Of the Hall-effect thrusters configurations available, it has been observed that Nested channel Hall thrusters (NHT) are well suited to high power applications. The proof of concept work of Liang on the X2 NHT has shown that such a configuration meets or exceeds the performance of conventional single-channel thrusters. In order to extend the NHT concept to higher operating powers with a wider throttling range, the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory at the University of Michigan, with the support of the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NASA, is developing a 100-kW class laboratory- model NHT. The motivation and heritage of this thruster, along with the necessary preparations undertaken to test such a device are discussed in this paper.

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