Experimental performance and plume characterisation of a miniaturised 50W Hall thruster

The performance metrics and the plume characteristics of a miniaturised Hall thruster are investigated. The thruster is part of the ExoMG-nano propulsion platform developed by Exotrail and, during the test campaign, it is operated with a power processing unit prototype. Beam divergence, ion energy distribution, thrust and specic impulse are the primary parameters measured during the investigation. The thrust is directly measured with a pendulum-type thrust balance, while the ion current density and ion energy distribution are measured using electrostatic probes. At about 53W of total input power and at a total xenon flow rate of 2.7 sccm (anode plus cathode), the thrust, total specific impulse and total effciency are 2 mN, 800 s and 15%, respectively. At the same power, the mass utilisation effciency is about 67 %, the divergence effciency is 70-75% and the half-angle where 90% of the plume ion current is found is 68-72o. A comparison with other commercially available propulsion platforms is also presented.