Performance Characteristics of Turkey’s First 1,5 kW Hall Thruster Electric Propulsion System

Due to significant advantages and successful applications, electric propulsion has become a key technology for both scientific and commercial space missions. Nowadays, almost every satellite is equipped with an electrical propulsion subsystem for the purposes of orbit transfer, orbit correction, collision avoidance, and performing stating-keeping maneuvers. Considering these advances in space propulsion technology, TUBITAK UZAY initiated a project to establish an electric propulsion test facility and develop a Hall thruster propulsion system (HALE Project). The project was started in 2010 and completed by the end of 2018. In the scope of the project, Turkey’s first qualification test model electric propulsion system has been developed in Turkey’s very first electric propulsion laboratory. The facility has all necessary equipment to test Hall Thruster systems up to 5kW power. The developed system is optimized to be used at 1350 W providing 80 mN thrust and 1500 s specific with 45% efficiency. In this paper, all project activities are summarized and outcomes are presented.