Design and Testing of a Hall Effect Thruster with 3 D Printed Channel and Propellant Distributor

The UAH-78AM is a low-power Hall effect thruster developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville with channel walls and a propellant distributor manufactured using 3D printing. The goal of this project is to assess the feasibility of using unconventional materials to produce a low-cost functioning Hall effect thruster and consider how additive manufacturing can expand the design space and provide other benefits. A version of the thruster was tested at NASA Glenn Research Center to obtain performance metrics and to validate the ability of the thruster to produce thrust and sustain a discharge. An overview of the thruster design and transient performance measurements are presented here. Measured thrust ranged from 17.2 mN to 30.4 mN over a discharge power of 280 W to 520 W with an anode ISP range of 870 s to 1450 s. Temperature limitations of materials used for the channel walls and propellant distributor limit the ability to run the thruster at thermal steady-state.