Session
Poster Session 4
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
In recent years, the small satellite space economy has experienced unprecedented growth with the emergence of low-cost dedicated and rideshare launch services. The resulting proliferation of small satellites creates a high demand for low cost, efficient electric propulsion systems to perform orbital maneuvers. Hall effect thrusters (HET) and gridded ion thrusters (GIT) are the two primary electric propulsion platforms for small sat applications, and they offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. Stellant, formerly Hughes, Boeing, and L3 Harris, is developing a lowpower GIT to meet these mission needs.
HETs produce thrust primarily through a highly coupled ionization and acceleration process, whereas GITs largely decouple these processes. Decoupling allows for the optimization and configuration of each separately, resulting in enhanced ion exit velocities and decreased beam divergence at the cost of a reduced thrust density. As thrusters scale to low powers, they suffer from increased wall losses with a greater surface area to volume ratio, which decreases performance and efficiency. Since ionization and acceleration is decoupled in GITs, they can typically preserve greater specific impulse and efficiency in the low-power regime.
Stellant is developing the 8cm Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS), which is a low-powered GIT targeted to meet this need in the small sat market. Stellant is leveraging its extensive flight heritage in the development of the 8cm XIPS with current plans for flight qualification in 2027.
Document Type
Event
Included in
Comparison Between Low-Powered Gridded Ion Thruster and Hall Effect Thruster Operation for Small Satellite Applications
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
In recent years, the small satellite space economy has experienced unprecedented growth with the emergence of low-cost dedicated and rideshare launch services. The resulting proliferation of small satellites creates a high demand for low cost, efficient electric propulsion systems to perform orbital maneuvers. Hall effect thrusters (HET) and gridded ion thrusters (GIT) are the two primary electric propulsion platforms for small sat applications, and they offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. Stellant, formerly Hughes, Boeing, and L3 Harris, is developing a lowpower GIT to meet these mission needs.
HETs produce thrust primarily through a highly coupled ionization and acceleration process, whereas GITs largely decouple these processes. Decoupling allows for the optimization and configuration of each separately, resulting in enhanced ion exit velocities and decreased beam divergence at the cost of a reduced thrust density. As thrusters scale to low powers, they suffer from increased wall losses with a greater surface area to volume ratio, which decreases performance and efficiency. Since ionization and acceleration is decoupled in GITs, they can typically preserve greater specific impulse and efficiency in the low-power regime.
Stellant is developing the 8cm Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS), which is a low-powered GIT targeted to meet this need in the small sat market. Stellant is leveraging its extensive flight heritage in the development of the 8cm XIPS with current plans for flight qualification in 2027.
