BHT-100

Magnetically shielded for longer lifetime. A significant step towards a more compact thruster.

The BHT-100 builds on our experience building small thrusters with the BHT-200. Designed with state of the art magnetic shielding that focuses ions away from the channel walls, the BHT-100 is predicted to have a lifetime of 10,000 hours or more.

The BHT-100 is a significant step away from the BHT-200 in terms of lifetime, power, and size. With an efficient operating range of 75 to 125 W, the BHT-100 fits more readily into the power operating envelope of small spacecraft.

Discharge Power: 100 W
Voltage: 200 VDC
Thrust: 7 mN
Specific Impulse: 1000 seconds
Propellants: Xenon, Iodine

Diameter: 8 cm
Length: 5.5 cm
Demonstrated Impulse: 45.36 kN⋅s
Predicted Total Impulse: > 250 kN⋅s

Iodine Compatible.

Additional system and mission advantages may be gained by fueling the long lifetime, low power Hall thruster with iodine instead of xenon. At 14-MPa and 320 K (typical storage conditions), xenon is a super-critical fluid with a density of 1.66-kg/l. In contrast, iodine stores in the solid phase at 4.9-kg/l. At 320 K, the vapor pressure of iodine calculated with the Clausius–Clapeyron relation is only 1.7 Torr (0.0002 MPa). Testing with the BHT-200 and other Busek Hall thrusters indicates that thruster efficiency with iodine fuel is almost the same as with xenon fuel.

The Whole Package.

Busek provides the option of a complete and fully integrated Hall Effect thruster system with the BHT-100, including cathode, power processing unit, digital control unit, and propellant management systems.

Busek propulsion systems are composed of a combination of commercially sourced parts with long flight heritage and in-house produced assemblies and electronics, perfectly tuned to achieve maximum performance and lifetime from our Hall thrusters.

Publications:

Szabo, J., Tedrake, R., Metivier, E., Paintal, S., and Taillefer, Z., "Characterization of a One Hundred Watt, Long Lifetime Hall Effect Thruster for Small Spacecraft", 53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2017-4728