Development of a 12.5kW Hall Thruster for the Advanced Electric Propulsion System

Since 2012, NASA has been developing the 12.5kW Hall Effect Rocket with Magnetic Shielding (HERMeS) thruster to serve the need for deep space propulsion. Aerojet Rocketdyne (AR) is developing the HERMeS Hall Current Thruster (HCT) into a flight capable design through the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) program. In execution of this program, Aerojet Rocketdyne has designed, built and begun test of two Engineering Test Unit (ETU) HCTs, designated ETU-1 and ETU-2. This paper presents some of the preliminary results from the ETU-1 thruster, and draws comparisons to previous HERMeS Technology Demonstration Units (TDUs) and the ETU-2 characterization unit. The ETU-1 thruster serves to evaluate the ETU design against dynamic and thermal environments while ETU-2 undergoes operational characterization and wear testing. The thruster has been exposed to acceptance and qualification-level vibration and shock testing, and has undergone acceptance and characterization hot-firing to evaluate thruster performance after exposure to dynamic environments. The results have demonstrated that the dynamic environments have not had an adverse effect on performance, and demonstrated that stability and operating characteristics remain unaffected. Together, ETU-1 and ETU-2 HCTs have demonstrated operating performance and characteristics in-family with each other and with the NASA HERMeS Technology Demonstration Units.