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Ion Engine and Hall Thruster Development at the NASA Glenn Research CenterNASA's Glenn Research Center has been selected to lead development of NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) system. The central feature of the NEXT system is an electric propulsion thruster (EPT) that inherits the knowledge gained through the NSTAR thruster that successfully propelled Deep Space 1 to asteroid Braille and comet Borrelly, while significantly increasing the thruster power level and making improvements in performance parameters associated with NSTAR. The EPT concept under development has a 40 cm beam diameter, twice the effective area of the Deep-Space 1 thruster, while maintaining a relatively-small volume. It incorporates mechanical features and operating conditions to maximize the design heritage established by the flight NSTAR 30 cm engine, while incorporating new technology where warranted to extend the power and throughput capability. The NASA Hall thruster program currently supports a number of tasks related to high power thruster development for a number of customers including the Energetics Program (formerly called the Space-based Program), the Space Solar Power Program, and the In-space Propulsion Program. In program year 2002, two tasks were central to the NASA Hall thruster program: 1.) the development of a laboratory Hall thruster capable of providing high thrust at high power; 2.) investigations into operation of Hall thrusters at high specific impulse. In addition to these two primary thruster development activities, there are a number of other on-going activities supported by the NASA Hall thruster program, These additional activities are related to issues such as thruster lifetime and spacecraft integration.
Document ID
20020092097
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Technical Memorandum (TM)
Authors
Domonkos, Matthew T. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Patterson, Michael J. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Jankovsky, Robert S. (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 2002
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
E-13612
NASA/TM-2002-211969
IMECE-2002-34444
NAS 1.15:211969
Meeting Information
Meeting: IMECE''02: 2002 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
Location: New Orleans, LA
Country: United States
Start Date: November 17, 2002
End Date: November 22, 2002
Sponsors: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 755-B4-04
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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