SUB-KILOWATT HALL THRUSTERS
Busek Co.
Sized perfectly for small satellites and CubeSats, these scalable solutions offer high performance for various applications.
About
Busek’s Sub-Kilowatt Hall Thrusters generate thrust by creating and accelerating ionized gas via an electric field. Confined within a finely shaped magnetic field, electrons gyrorotate within the channel until they ionize a neutral atom. The ionized plasma is then accelerated by the electric field to exhaust velocities of greater than 25,0000 m/s. With no moving mechanical parts and a simple electrical layout, Hall thrusters are extremely reliable; no on-orbit thruster failures have been reported to-date. The high specific impulse of Hall thrusters leverages the nonlinear nature of the rocket equation, leading to exponential improvement in spacecraft mass ratio. While the best existing chemical engines have a specific impulse of around 400 s, Busek’s high power thrusters have over 2500 s, enabling over 6x the delta-V for the same propellant mass fraction. This electric propulsion technology is mission-enabling, allowing for unprecedented flexibility for new missions.
Documentation
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