Thruster

NASA-173GT


Photograph of the NASA-173GT without the Hall stage cathode, taken prior to testing.

Developed
2002 – 2003

Tested at PEPL
2004

Developer
PEPL, NASA GRC

The NASA-173GT was jointly developed and built by PEPL and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in 2002-2003 to investigate the possibility of combining the efficient ionization stage of the ion thruster with the gridless acceleration stage of the Hall thruster.

Selected Publications


  • Performance of the H9 Magnetically Shielded Hall Thrusters

    Cusson, S. E., Hofer, R. R., Lobbia, R. B., Jorns, B. A., and Gallimore, A. D.

    35th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Atlanta,GA, IEPC-2017-239, 2017

  • The H9 Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster

    Hofer, R.R., Cusson, S.E., Lobbia, R.B., and Gallimore, A.D.

    35th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Atlanta,GA, IEPC-2017-232, 2017

  • Dispersion relation measurements of plasma modes in the near-field plume of a 9-kW magnetically shielded thruster

    Brown, Z. A., and Jorns, B. A.

    35th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Atlanta, GA, IEPC-2017-387, 2017

  • Experimental Evidence for Ion Acoustic Solitons in the Plume of a Hollow Cathode

    Georgin, M.P., Jorns, B.A., and Gallimore, A.D.

    2nd Space Propulsion Conference, Sevilla, Spain, SPC18-403, May 14-18, 2018

  • Ion Acoustic Turbulence in the Hollow Cathode Plume of a Hall Effect Thruster

    Cusson, S.E., Brown., Z, Dale, E.T., Jorns, B.A., and Gallimore, A.D.

    54th AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA-2018-4509, July 9-11, 2018

  • Non-Invasive Characterization of the Ionization Region of a Hall Effect Thruster

    Dale, E.T. and Jorns, B.A.

    54th AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA-2018-4508, July 9-11, 2018

  • Spatial Evolution of Plasma Waves in the Near-field of a Magnetically Shielded Hall Thruster

    Brown, Z. and Jorns, B.A.

    54th AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA-2018-4423, July 9-11, 2018

  • Impact of Neutral Density on the Magnetic Shielding of Hall Thrusters

    Cusson, S.E., Jorns, B.A., and Gallimore, A.D.

    36th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Vienna, Austria, IEPC-2019-276, 2019

  • Two-zone Hall thruster breathing mode mechanism, Part II: Experiment

    Dale, E.T., and Jorns, B.A.

    36th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Vienna, Austria, IEPC-2019-352, 2019

  • Experimental Correlation between Anomalous Electron Collision Frequency and Plasma Turbulence in a Hall Effect Thruster

    Brown, Z.A, Dale, E., and Jorns, B.A.

    36th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Vienna, Austria, IEPC-2019-843, 2019

  • Non-invasive in situ measurement of the near-wall ion kinetic energy in a magnetically shielded Hall thruster

    Cusson, Sarah E.

    Plasma Sources Science and Technology, Vol. 28 No. 10, 21 October 2019

  • Performance of a 9-kW Magnetically-Shielded Hall Thruster with Krypton

    Leanne L. Su , Alexander R. Vazsonyi and Benjamin Jorns

    VIRTUAL, https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2020-3617, August 17, 2020

  • Performance Comparison of a 9-kW Magnetically-Shielded Hall Thruster Operating on Xenon and Krypton

    Leanne L. Su and Benjamin A. Jorns

    Journal of Applied Physics, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/2021_JoAP_Su.pdf, October 7, 2021

  • Operation and Performance of a Magnetically Shielded Hall thruster at Ultrahigh Current Densities on Xenon and Krypton

    Leanne L. Su, Tate M. Gill, Parker J. Roberts, William J. Hurley, Thomas A. Marks, Christopher L. Sercel, Madison G. Allen, Collin B. Whittacker, Mathew P. Byrne, Zachariah B. Brown, Eric Viges, and Benjamin A. Jorns

    SciTech 2023, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/SciTech_2023_UM.pdf, January 2023

  • Design of an Air-Core Magnet Circuit for a Hall Thruster

    William J. Hurley, Thomas A. Marks, and Benjamin A. Jorns

    SciTech 2023, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/SciTech_2023_Hurley.pdf, January 2023

  • Growth and Saturation of the Electron Drift Instability in a Crossed Field Plasma

    Zachariah A. Brown and Benjamin A. Jorns

    Physical Review Letters, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/PRL_2023_Brown.pdf, March 2023

  • Challenges with the self-consistent implementation of closure models for anomalous electron transport in fluid simulations of Hall thrusters

    Marks, Thomas A. Jorns, Benjamin A

    Plasma Sources Science and Technology, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/Marks_PSST_2023.pdf, April 2023

  • HallThruster.jl: a Julia package for 1D Hall thruster discharge simulation

    Marks, Thomas A. Schedler, P. Jorns, Benjamin A

    Journal of Open Source Software, https://pepl.engin.umich.edu/pdf/Marks_JOSS_2023.pdf, July 2023