Hall-effect thruster

Uncommon card · No. 159680

In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET, sometimes referred to as a Hall thruster or Hall-current thruster) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Based on the discovery by Edwin Hall, Hall-effect thrusters use a magnetic field to limit the electrons' axial motion and then use them to ionize propellant, efficiently accelerate the ions to produce thrust, and neutralize the ions in the plume. The Hall-effect thruster is classed as a moderate specific impulse (1,600 s) space propulsion technology and has benefited from considerable theoretical and experimental research since the 1960s. Hall thrusters operate on a variety of propellants, the most common being xenon and krypton. Other propellants of interest include argon, bismuth, iodine, magnesium, zinc and adamantane. Hall thrusters are able to accelerate their exhaust to speeds between 10 and 80 km/s (1,000–8,000 s specific impulse), with most models operating between 15 and...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Public domain