MARTIN GENDELL'S PORTFOLIO
Hall Effect Ion Thruster
Hall Effect Ion thrusters are a type of electric propulsion system used on all sorts of satellites; from 200kW class thrusters used on telescopes and long-term space exploration missions to small 100W class systems used for CubeSats.​ The goal of my project is to use ceramic 3D printing to simplify the design, reduce the cost, and integrate solid state thrust vectoring into a CubeSat scale thruster.
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How it works:
A Hall Effect Thruster uses electromagnetic fields to capture and accelerate electrons generated by a Cathode into a neutral gas such as Krypton, Argon, and Xenon. This knocks out one of their electrons, turning them into positive ions. These ions are then repelled from the positively charged baseplate, accelerating away from the thruster and generating thrust. One of the biggest challenges with this design is manufacturing the complex ceramic discharge channel (CDC) at the thruster's core, a problem I aim to solve by 3D printing it with a ceramic-resin composite.
Goals, Design, and Innovation
#1) Simplifying the thruster:
By 3D printing the ceramic discharge channel (CDC) out of a ceramic-resin composite, and integrating the gas distribution channels of both the CDC and the Hollow cathode inside the CDC's base, I can remove ~40% of the components traditionally found in Hall thrusters
#2) Reducing size and power usage:
The power constraints of the cubesat allow for a maximum power allocation of 100W, an incredibly low amount of power for a Hall Thruster. Currently, very few thrusters exists at this scale, so this project will be a testbed for power and size optimization.
#3) Solid state thrust vectoring:
The size constraints of a 3U CubeSat do not allow for traditional mechanical thrust vectoring systems. Instead, I will take advantage of the complex geometries enabled by 3D printing to create a new, more compact solution.
Iterations and SImulations
Simulations in Simscale Electromagnetics have proven that my current design should function as intended
