Progress on the Development of a Direct Evaporation Bismuth Hall Thruster

It has been demonstrated that using segmented anodes for thermal regulation of anodes is possible by controlling where the discharge current attaches to. Thrust, Isp and efficiency measurements were taken on a segmented Hall thruster in order to ascertain what effect moving the discharge current attachment has on thruster performance. Overall, very little change in thrust, specific impulse and efficiency were measured across the operating spectrum when running on xenon. Thermal measurements were also taken but it was found that anode power density needed to be substantially increased to achieve the temperatures necessary for operation on bismuth. The anode face area was subsequently reduced and using a unique dualpropellant distributor, this work reports on experiments to use a xenon discharge as a “jump start” mechanism to provide waste heat necessary to initiate direct bismuth evaporation. Using the shim electrodes and magnetic fields for temperature control, the thruster is operated entirely on bismuth after a xenon warm-up stage.

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