VASIMR DANISHA:A Hall Thruster Space Odyssey

VASIMR
DANISHA
A Hall Thruster Space
Odyssey
By Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika, PhD,

FRAS, AES
1
VASIMR DANISHA: A HALL THRUSTER SPACE ODYSSEY
Page no.(i)
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika, A.E.S.

MSc, PhD, MIAMP (Germany), FRAS (Lond.),
MWASET, MFFS (USA), MIBC (UK), MNPSS (USA)
Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Mathematics, Diphu Govt. College, Diphu, Karbi
Anglong, Assam, India ,Pin- 782462, M- 9435166881
Res: “Anjena Manzil”, Kadomtola, Modhupur, P.O. Modhupur,

Dist: Nagaon, Assam, India
Pin - 782001 Ph- 03672-256327
*****************************************************
*******************
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarik,PhD,FRAS,AES
2
Page no.(ii)
PREFACE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As available on website:
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_Hazarika
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" A.B.Rajib Hazarika" redirects here. For Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika,
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Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika
[[File:Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika & his two kids.jpg [1]

|frameless|alt=]]
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika with Laquit(son) and Danisha(daughter)
Azad Bin Rajib Hazarika
Born July 2, 1970 (age 40)
Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Residence Nagaon, Assam, India
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Assamese Muslim
3
Citizenship India
Education PhD, PDF, FRAS
University of Jodhpur
Jai Narayan Vyas University
Alma mater Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology
</ref>http://www.iasst.in/]
Kendriya Vidyalaya[1] http://www.akipoonacollege.com/
Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Diphu Govt. College ,

Occupation
Diphu,Assam,India
Years
2004- onwards
active
Diphu Government College

Employer
Government of Assam ,Assam Education Service
Lecturer ,Assistant Professor,Mathematician, Academician

Known for ,Fusion,Astronomy
Home town Nagaon, Assam, India
Salary Rs 40000 per month
Height 6 feet and 2 inches
Weight 100 kg
4
Doctorate, Dr., FRAS (London), Assam Education Service,

Title
AES
Member of Scientific and Technical committee & Editorial

Board review board of Natuaral and Applied sciences World Academy
member of of Science ,Engineering & Technology</ref>
http://www.waset.org/NaturalandAppliedSciences.php?page=45
Sunni Islam,
Religion
Spouse Helmin Begum Hazarika
Children Laquit Ali Hazarika(son), Danisha Begum Hazarika(daughter)
Rosmat Ali Hazarika@Rostam Ali Hazarika@Roufat Ali

Parents
Hazarika and Anjena Begum Hazarika
Call-sign Drabrh or Raja
Website
http://www.facebook.com/Drabrajib
http://in.linkedin.com/pub/dr-a-b-rajib-hazarika/25/506/549
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Drabrh
http://www.diphugovtcollege.org/
http://www.karbianglong.nic.in/diphugovtcollege.org/teaching.html
5
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika,PhD,FRAS,AES (born July 02, 1970, in

Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India) is Assistant
Professor(Lecturer) Diphu Government College ,Diphu in
KarbiAnglong district , Government of Assam[2], [3] ,
KarbiAnglong,Assam's largest conglomerate by Government of
Assam . He is also the Fellow of Royal Astronomical
Society[4],London ,Member of International Association of
Mathematical Physics, World Academy of Science ,Engineering
& Technology , Focus Fusion Society, Dense Plasma Focus,
Plasma Science Society of India, International Biographical
centre, Assam Science Society, Assam Academy of
Mathematics,International Atomic Energy Agency,Nuclear and
Plasma Society,Society of Industrial and Applied
Mathematics,German Academy of Mathematics and
Mechanics,Fusion Science & Technology Society,Indian National
Science Academy,Indian Science Congress Association,Advisory
Committee of Mathematical Education, Royal
Society,International Biographical Centre.
Contents
• 1 Early life
o 1.1 Early career
1.1.1 Currently working
• 2 Career
• 3 Research
• 4 Patent & Innovation
• 5 Research Guidence
• 6 Personal life
• 7 Quotes
• 8 Awards and recognition
• 9 References
• 10 External links
6
Early life
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was born into the famous Hazarika family,

a prominent family belonging to Dhing's wealthy Muslim
Assamese community of Nagaon district. He was born to Anjena
Begum Hazarika and Rusmat Ali Hazarika. He is eldest of two
childrens of his parents younger one is a Shamim Ara
Rahman(nee Hazarika)daughter .
Early career
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika completed his PhD degree in Mathematics

from J N Vyas University of Jodhpur in 1995 with specialization
in Plasma instability, the thesis was awarded “best thesis” by
Association of Indian Universities in 1998 and the Post-Doctoral
Fellow Program from Institute of Advanced Study in Science &
Technology [5] in Guwahati Assam in 1998 as Research
Associate in Plasma Physics Division in theory group studying the
Sheath phenomenon. As a Part-time Lecturer in Nowgong
college, Assam before joining the present position in Diphu
Government College ,Diphu in KarbiAnglong district [6],[7]
He is a member of the wikipedia[8], [9].
He is Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society [10],member of
International Association Mathematical Physics [11], member of
World Academy of Science,Engineering & Technology [12],
[13],member of Plasma Science Society of India [14] , [15]
,member of Focus Fusion Society forum [16] ,member of Dense
Plasma Focus [17], Member of Assam Science Society [18],
Member of Assam Academy of Mathematics [19]
Currently working
He joined the Diphu Government College[20] in July 2004 as

Lecturer in Mathematics (Gazetted officer)
through Assam Public Service commission[21] in Assam
7
Education Service [22] ,AES-I. [23] now redesignated as

Assistant Professor.
Career
In May 1993, Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was awarded Junior

Research Fellowship, University Grants Commission, National
Eligibility Test and eligibility for Lecturership ,Govt. of India and
worked as JRF(UGC,NET) in Department of Mathematics and
Statistics of J N Vyas University in Jodhpur. Later on in May
1995 got Senior Research Fellowship(UGC,NET) and continued
research for completion of PhD on 27th Dec 1995 .From 1993
onwards taught in Kamala Nehru College for women, Jodhpur
and in Faculty of Science in J N Vyas University in Jodhpur up to
the completion of PhD .In 1998 May joined Plasma Physics
Division of Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology
in Guwahati as Research Associate for PDF in theory group to
study the sheath phenomena of National Fusion Programme [24]
of Govt. of India . Then joined Nowgong College as a part-time
Lecturer after which in 2004, July joined the present position of
Lecturer in Diphu Government College which is redesignated as
Assistant Professor.
Research
During PhD </ref> http://www.iopscience.iop.org/1402-

4896/51/6/012/pdf/physcr_51_6_012.pdf
</ref> http://www.iopsciences.iop.org/1402-
4896/53/1/011/pdf/1402-4896_53_1_011.pdf
</ref>
http://www.niscair.res.in/sciencecommunication/abstractingjourna
ls/isa_1jul08.asp
</ref> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wikitionary:Sandbox
</ref> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996PhyS..53...578
8
during PDF the research was based on Astronomy, Astrophysics,

Geophysics , for plasma instability with the title of thesis as
“Some Problems of instabilities in partially ionized and fully
ionized plasmas” which later on in 1998 was assessed as best
thesis of the year by Association of Indian Universities in New
Delhi. His current interest lies in Astronomy, Astrophysics,
Geophysics, Fusion Plasma, and innovation of fusion devices,
design of fusion devices, simulation codes and theoretical
mathematical modeling.He is known for his theoretical research
work on Gravitational instability and gravitational collapse M=23/2
Msun as a new formula for Chandrasekhar limit now known as
Bhatia-Hazarika Limit , when the rotating neutron star, pulsars are
formed .When the mass of the star is more than this limit a
neutron star shrinks or abberates due to gravitational collapse up
to a point size in space. As it is known that when the star passes
limit of the size of old star more than three times that of mass of
sun it passes the Schwarchild radius and there on is a black hole
from where we can receive no more information as its
gravitational field is too intense to permit anything , even photons
to escape.Research at Diphu Govt. College </ref>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Drabrh/File:Dr
abrhdouble_trios_saiph_star01.pdf
</ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drabrh_bayer_rti.pdf
</ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Columb_drabrh.pdf
</ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drabrh_double_trios.pdf
</ref>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drabrhiterparabolic2007.pdf
</ref>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drabrh_mctc_feedbackloop.pdf
</ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drabrh_tasso_07.pdf
</ref> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abstracts.pdf?page=2
Patent & Innovation
Applied for patent in US patent and trademarks office has

innovated three future fusion devices Double Tokomak collider
9
(DTC), Magnetic confinement Tokomak collider (MCTC) hub,

Duo Triad Tokomak collider (DTTC) hub .A Hall thruster as
diffusion associated neoclassical indigenous system of Hall
assembly (DANISHA)is designed applied for international
application No.PCT/IB2009/008024 in World Intellectual
Property Organisation[25].He has innovated a new simulation
code Fuzzy Differential Inclusion Code in 2003 for fusion
process.[26], [27]
Research Guidence
Research guidence is given to two students in Mathematics for

MPhil degree
Personal life
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika has a metallic Scarlet red Tata Indigo CS

of Tata motors make and loves to drive himself.
Quotes
• "Fakir(saint) and lakir(line) stops at nothing but at

destination"
• "Expert criticizes the wrong but demonstrates the right
thing"
• “Intellectuals are measured by their brain not by their age
and experience”
• “Two type of persons are happy in life one who knows
everything another who doesn’t know anything”
• “Implosion in device to prove every notion wrong for
fusion”
• “Meditation gives fakir(saint) long life and fusion
devices the long lasting confinement”
1
Awards and recognition
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika got Junior Research

Fellowship,Government of India
Senior Research Fellowship,Government of India
Research AssociateshipDSTGovernment of India
Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society [28]
Member of Advisory committee of Mathematical Education
Royal Society London
Member of Scientific and Technical committee & editorial review
board on Natural and applied sciences of World Academy of
Science ,Engineering &Technology [29]
Leading professional of the world-2010 as noted and eminent
professional from International Biographical Centre Cambridge
References
1. ^ http://www.kvafsdigaru.org/
Poona College of Arts, Science &Commerce
• Template:Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:contributi
ons/Drabrh
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Drabrh/Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika
• [30]
• Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika's profile on the Linkedin Website
• [31]]]
dr ab rajib hazarika aes 19:01, 16 October 2010 (UTC) dr ab rajib

hazarika aes
1
Categories: Jai Narayan Vyas University alumni | Institute of

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Sunni muslim
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1
DIFFUSION ASSOCIATED NEOCLASSICAL

INDIGENOUS SYSTEM OF HALL ASSEMBLY
(DANISHA)
Histor y
Hall thrusters were studied independently in the US and the USSR

in the 1950s and '60s. However, the concept of a Hall thruster was
only developed into an efficient propulsion device in the former
Soviet Union, whereas in the US, scientists focused instead on
developing gridded ion thrusters.
Two types of Hall thrusters were developed in the Soviet Union:
• thrusters with wide acceleration zone, SPD (Russian:

СПД, стационарный плазменный двигатель; English:
1
SPT, Stationary Plasma Thruster) at Design Bureau

Fakel
• thrusters with narrow acceleration zone, DAS (Russian:
ДАС, двигатель с анодным слоем; English: TAL,
Thruster with Anode Layer), at the Central Research
Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMASH).
Soviet and Russian SPD thrusters
The common SPD design was largely the work of A. I.

Morozov.[1] SPD engines were operated since 1972. They were
mainly used for satellite stabilization in North-South and in East-
West directions. Since then until the late 1990s 118 SPD engines
completed their mission and some 50 continued to be operated.
Thrust of the first generation of SPD engines, SPD-50 and SPD-
60 was 20 and 30 mN respectively. In 1982 SPD-70 and SPD-100
were introduced, their thrust being 40 mN and 83 mN. In the post-
Soviet Russia high-power (a few kilowatts) SPD-140,
SPD-160, SPD-180, T-160 and low-power (less than 500 W)

SPD-35 were introduced.[2]
1
Soviet and Russian DAS-type engines include D-38 and D-55.[2]
Soviet-built thrusters were introduced to the West in 1992 after a

team of electric propulsion specialists, under the support of the
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, visited Soviet laboratories
and experimentally evaluated the SPD-100 (i.e., a 100 mm
diameter SPT thruster). Over 200 Hall thrusters have been flown
on Soviet/Russian satellites in the past thirty years. They were
used mainly for station keeping and small orbital corrections.
Currently Hall Thruster research, design, and theoretical
modelling is led by experts at NASA Glenn Research Center and
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A considerable amount of
development is being conducted in industry, such as Aerojet and
Busek Co.
This technology was used on the European lunar mission

SMART-1 and is used on a number of commercial geostationary
satellites.[3]
Introduction
What's a Hall Thruster?
The Hall thruster is a type of plasma-based propulsion systems

for space vehicles. The amount of fuel that must be carried by a
satellite depends on the speed with which the thruster can eject it.
Chemical rockets have very limited fuel exhaust speed. Plasmas
can be ejected at much higher speeds, therefore less fuel need be
carried on board.
The Hall thruster was invented in the late 1950's. Until the mid
1990's, it has been developed primarily by the Russians. During
the past 30 years, the Russian placed in orbit more than 100 Hall
thrusters. However, the vast majority of satellites worldwide have
relied on chemical thrusters and, to a lesser extent, arc jet thrusters
and ion thrusters.
1
A conventional electrostatic ion thruster consists of two grids,

an anode and a cathode, between which a voltage drop occurs.
Positively charged ions accelerate away from the anode toward
the cathode grid and through it. After the ions get past the
cathode, electrons are added to the flow, neutralizing the output to
keep it moving. A thrust is exerted on the anode-cathode system,
in a direction opposite to that of the flow. Unfortunately, a
positive charge builds up in the space between the grids, limiting
the ion flow and, therefore, the magnitude of the thrust that can be
attained.
In a Hall thruster, electrons injected into a radial magnetic field

neutralize the space charge. The magnitude of the applied
magnetic field is approximately 100- 200 gauss, strong enough to
trap the electrons by causing them to spiral around the field lines
in the coaxial channel. The magnetic field and a trapped electron
cloud together serve as a virtual cathode. The ions, too heavy to
be affected by the field, continue their journey through the virtual
cathode. The movement of the positive and negative electrical
charges through the system results in a net force (thrust) on the
thruster in a direction opposite that of the ion flow. Existing Hall
thrusters can produce large jet velocities 10-30 km/s within the
input power in the range from hundred watts to tens of kilowatts.
For the state-of-the-art thrusters operating in the power range of
above kilowatt, 50-60% of the input electric power goes to the
kinetic power of the plasma jet. These thrusters are capable to
produce the thrust in the range 0.1-1 N. Since ion acceleration
takes place in quasi-neutral plasma, Hall thrusters are not limited
by space-charge build up. Hence, higher current and thrust
densities than conventional ion thrusters can be achieved at
discharge voltages from hundreds volts to a few kilovolts. With
such performance capabilities Hall thrusters can be used to keep
satellites on geosynchronous orbit (GEO), to compensate for
atmospheric drag on satellite in low-earth orbits (LEO), to raise a
satellite from LEO to GEO and for interplanetary missions.
Besides space applications, Hall thrusters can be also useful for
industrial applications such as plasma processing of materials.
1
The Hall Thruster Concept
Presently in use
"Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory: Fueling the Future"

presents an overview of the Laboratory's research program. The
video includes a basic introduction to the principles of magnetic
fusion energy, a mission synopsis of PPPL's current major fusion
experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment, and
descriptions of fusion devices proposed for the future. These
include the National Compact Stellarator Experiment, being built
at PPPL, and the international ITER project. Information on the
1
application of plasma physics to solve near-term problems is also

presented.
Operation
The essential working principle of the Hall thruster is that it uses

an electrostatic potential to accelerate ions up to high speeds. In a
Hall thruster the attractive negative charge is provided by electron
plasma at the open end of the thruster instead of a grid. A radial
magnetic field of a few milli-Teslas [4] is used to hold the
electrons in place, where the combination of the magnetic field
and an attraction to the anode force a fast circulating electron
current around the axis of the thruster and only a slow axial drift
towards the anode occurs.
1
Hall thrusters are largely axially symmetric. This is a cross-

section containing that axis.
A schematic of a Hall thruster is shown in the image to the right.

An electric potential on the order of 300 volts is applied between
the anode and cathode.
The central spike forms one pole of an electromagnet and is

surrounded by an annular space and around that is the other pole
of the electromagnet, with a radial magnetic field in-between.
The propellant, such as xenon gas is fed through the anode, which
has numerous small holes in it to act as a gas distributor. Xenon
propellant is used because of its high molecular weight and low
ionization potential. As the neutral xenon atoms diffuse into the
channel of the thruster, they are ionized by collisions with high
energy circulating electrons (10–20 eV or 100,000 to 250,000 °C).
Once ionized the xenon ions typically have a charge of +1 though
a small fraction (~10%) are +2.
The xenon ions are then accelerated by the electric field between
the anode and the cathode. The ions quickly reach speeds of
around 15,000 m/s for a specific impulse of 1,500 seconds (15
kN·s/kg). Upon exiting however, the ions pull an equal number of
electrons with them, creating a plume with no net charge.
The axial magnetic field is designed to be strong enough to

substantially deflect the low-mass electrons, but not the high-mass
ions which have a much larger gyro radius and are hardly
impeded. The majority of electrons are thus stuck orbiting in the
region of high radial magnetic field near the thruster exit plane,
trapped in E×B (axial electric field and radial magnetic field).
This orbital rotation of the electrons is a circulating Hall current
and it is from this that the Hall thruster gets its name. Collisions
and instabilities allow some of the electrons to be freed from the
magnetic field and they drift towards the anode.
1
About 30% of the discharge current is an electron current which

doesn't produce thrust, which limits the energetic efficiency of the
thruster; the other 70% of the current is in the ions. Because the
majority of electrons are trapped in the Hall current, they have a
long residence time inside the thruster and are able to ionize
almost all (~90%) of the xenon propellant. The ionization
efficiency of the thruster is thus around 90%, while the discharge
current efficiency is around 70% for a combined thruster
efficiency of around 63% (= 90% × 70%).
The magnetic field thus ensures that the discharge power

predominately goes into accelerating the xenon propellant and not
the electrons, and the thruster turns out to be reasonably efficient.
Compared to chemical rockets the thrust is very small, on the
order of 80 mN for a typical thruster. For comparison, the weight
of a coin like the U.S. quarter or a 20-cent Euro coin is
approximately 60 mN.
However, Hall thrusters operate at the high specific impulses that

are achieved with ion thrusters. One particular advantage of Hall
thrusters, as compared to an ion thruster, is that the generation
and acceleration of the ions takes place in a quasi-neutral plasma
and so there is no Child-Langmuir charge (space charge) saturated
current limitation on the thrust density, and thus thrust is high for
electrically accelerated thrusters.
Another advantage is that these thrusters can use a wider variety

of propellants supplied to the anode, even oxygen, although
something easily ionized is needed at the cathode.[5] One
propellant that is starting to be used is liquid bismuth due to its
low cost, high mass and low partial pressure.
THEORY
In this study, we developed three computational techniques for the

ECE radiation analysis of the Hall thruster.
2
The first one is the single particle approximation analysis. This is

the simplest one among the approaches. We modeled the plasma
region of the Hall thruster with three parameters, the magnetic
field, electron temperature, and electron density distributions.
These parameters are constant in a cell. We calculated the
radiation with the parameter distributions according to the
observation angle. The frequency of a cell is determined by the
magnetic field of the cell. This analysis is easy to approach and
does not require a high computing performance. However, the
results of this analysis don’t have detail results. The radiated
electric field is derived from the power, so there is no polarization
information on the electric field. We moved on more sophisticated
analysis.
The next one is the Particle-In-Cell (PIC) analysis. PIC is for

analysis of microscopic phenomena. Particle motions in the
thruster channel region are simulated with the PIC method. We
selected electrons from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for
the speed of electrons. The Monte-Carlo method was adopted in
this selection. We solved the Lorentz force equation to get the
motion data of the electrons and analyzed the radiated electric
field with the particle motions. Then, we took the Fourier
transform of the electric field to consider the radiation in the
frequency domain. This approach is from definition, the radiation
is from charge acceleration. It is more realistic approach to the
plasma. It uses same parameter distributions, but the parameter in
a cell is not constant any more because of adopting the Monte-
Carlo method. It also shows the polarization information of the
radiation. However, we assume in this analysis that the radiation
is in free space. The channel plasma is considered as current
sources for radiation. The material constants of the plasma are
concerned as free space.
The last approach adopted is to consider the non free space and
inhomogeneous media. The hybrid FEM/MoM (hybrid element
method) was suggested to exploit advantages of finite element
2
method (FEM) and method of moment (MoM), the representative

methods for the radiation analysis, and to compensate their
disadvantages. The hybrid element method was introduced to
analyze the ECE radiation by using EMAP5. In this analysis, the
plasma was considered as dielectrics, and the source currents were
from the plasma parameters.

INDEGENOUS SYSTEM OF HALL ASSEMBLY
(DANISHA): A HALL THRUSTER

INDEGINOUS SYSTEM OF HALL ASSEMBLY
(DANISHA) FOR HALL EFFECT THRUSTER AND
SUPPRESSION OF FLR & SHEARED AXIAL FLOW ON
RTI
The present study is related different geometry of the Hall

thrusters in which I have tried to get better results than the simple
Hall thrusters available at present with the future next generation
device Duo Triad Tokomak collider (DTTC) hub by the using
new type of code Diffusion Associated Neoclassical Indigenous
Hall Assembly (DANISHA).Suppression of sheared axial flow
and finite larmor radius (FLR) on Rayleigh-Taylor instability with
Diffusion associated neoclassical indigenous system of Hall
assembly (DANISHA) is studied in toroidal geometry coordinates
for derived magneto hydrodynamic formulation for getting the
thrust effect by using such magnetic device used for first time.
The DANISHA hall thruster works for 56000(FIFTY- SIX
THOUSNAD HOURS) instead of 8000 hrs in case of SPT-100.
The sheared axial flow is introduced into MHD and FLR effect
∂
via
∂t
( )
→ −i ω + ik ⊥2 ρ i2 Ω i . The sheared axial flow with a
2
lower peak velocity suppresses the RT instability. It is observed

that the FLR suppress the RT instability strongly than the sheared
axial flow. The results are same as in case of slab geometry.
INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY OF DANISHA
Earlier the classical transport phenomena is studied by

Pfrisch and Schluter (1962) in which the Pfrish –Schluter regime
and other constants given by them afterwards Pfrisch (1978)
studied the collisional transport phenomena. Kerner (1978)
computationally studied for MHD stability of tokomak class with
r r
fixed boundaries. Fluctuations are suppressed whereas the E × B
shear is above a critical value with sheared velocity; external
source term with finite conductivity is included for stabilization of
RTI by Hazarika (1998, 2001) in BETA machine.
A conceptual device for greater energy is being considered
hypothetically i.e., Magnetic confinement Tokomak collider
(MCTC) hub, Hazarika (2003, 2004) for RTI stabilization in Low-
β plasma and for Fuzzy Differential Inclusion (FDI) simulation
is done to get the diffusion phenomena as we get new regime
(Hazarika’s regime) for skin depth is seen to be very sharp with
new moon like crescent having advantage over Tokomak. It is
shown that velocity drift is also very much greater than that of
Tokomak and BETA machine. Hazarika (2005, 2007),Low-
frequency is studied for thermal conductivity by Hazarika
(2009a), Feedback stabilization is studied in DTC by Hazarika
(2009b),Hazarika(2009c) studied the classical transport
phenomena in Double Tokomak Collider (DTC).Magnetic
confinement Tokomak collider (MCTC) Hub is studied for neo
classical theory of transport phenomena by Hazarika
(2009d).Bhatia and Hazarika(2007) showed the Hall effect and
FLR on R-T instability where the hall effect enhances the
instability and the FLR suppresses the instability this forms the
2
aspect of the paper. Similarly same effect is shown by Yaun et al

(2009), Gaungde et al (2005), Xiao-Ming et al (2002)
It is based on DUO TRIAD TOKAMAK COLLIDER

(DANISHA) HUB with Low- β plasma having low frequency
fluctuation which is being stabilized for sheared velocity, finite
conductivity and with other parameters. The induced RTI is
suppressed by above mentioned parameters and as a whole the
classical transport phenomena is taken into consideration. The
heat conductivity is calculated, Banana (Hazarika’s) regime is
calculated where an important result regime for DUO TRIAD
TOKAMAK COLLIDER (DANISHA) HUB which is
D ps
DH = i.e., the term in bracket is better off the
[6 + sC h ]2
Pfirsch-Schluter regime. After the Bohm diffusion the Hazarika’s
diffusion coefficient is calculated. Bohm diffusion also gets
3/ 2
⎡ RC h ⎤
changed as DB = DH ⎢ ⎥ .Here we see that at first
⎣ r ⎦
comes the Bohm diffusion than classical plateau, Pfirsch-
Schluter’s regime than comes the Hazarika’s regime for DUO
TRIAD TOKAMAK COLLIDER (DANISHA) HUB for transport
phenomena one new result is found as
q 2 vcl
v⊥ = . The above facts compel one to study the
[6 + sC h ]
classical phenomena along with collisional transport phenomena,
Mirror effect decreases drastically. Toroidal and poloidal beta are
calculated. Earlier Bhatia and Hazarika (1995) have studied the
effect of self gravitating superposed plasma flowing past each
other which of use in the DUO TRIAD TOKAMAK COLLIDER
(DANISHA) Hub’s collider region. The two torii meets together
at collider region which is the source region of collision or
stability in DUO TRIAD TOKAMAK COLLIDER (DANISHA)
2
HUB .This may be considered of interest to particle Physicist for

quantum theory researchers and so on.
Schematic diagram of DANISHA
DANISHA
2
Cross-sectional view of DANISHA Hall thruster
Lateral view of DANISHA Hall Thruster
2
BASIC EQUATIONS for VASIMR (DANISHA) ©
∂E + ω
= B+ C h (1.1)
∂x c
∂B ω pi E + 4πi
2
Ch = − neV+ (1.2)
∂x cω ci C h c
∂V+ eE +
V+ = + i(ω − C hω ci )V+ + gL−n1 (1.3)
∂x mi
2 2
∂V eB0 x ∂ C h B+ V+ ∂B0 x
V+ + = − (1.4)
∂x 8πme nC h B+ ∂x 2 B+ C h ∂x
C h B+ nV x
= j = constant (1.5)
B0
E x + iE y
E + (x ) = C h1 / 2 e −iωt (1.6)
B0 x
B+
Boundary conditions
V+ (− ∞ ) = 0
2
E + (+ ∞ ) = 0
B+ (− ω ) = 0 (1.7)
4
V ⎛ ω pi ⎞
γ = x2 ⎜⎜ l ⎟⎟ + gL−n1 is the growth rate for the
lω C h ⎝ c ⎠
VASIMR DANISHA© with axial velocity in consideration.
4
dγ 1 ⎛ ω pi ⎞
= 2 ⎜⎜ l ⎟⎟ , the derivative of growth rate with
dV x lC h ⎝ c ⎠
respect to axial velocity is positive showing that the axial velocity
stabilizes the system.
4
ν ⎛ ω pi ⎞
γ = 2
⎜⎜ l ⎟⎟ + gL−n1 Is the growth rate for the VASIMR
lC ⎝ c ⎠
h
DANISHA© with the FLR in consideration for the system.
4
dγ 1 ⎛ ω pi ⎞
= 2 ⎜⎜ l ⎟⎟ , similarly the growth rate with respect to
dν lC h ⎝ c ⎠
the FLR is positive giving us the stabilizing effect for the system.
pRCh γ
P= (1.8)
σ
RF power dissipation is given by
2
ω pe
2
I ce2
jx Ex ≈ (1.9)
ν e c4
The power lost via gas excitation and subsequent line radiation
can be estimated as
3/ 2
⎛T ⎞ me n0 ne 4 ⎡ − E exe ⎤
Pred ≈ 8π ⎜⎜ e ⎟⎟ exp ⎢ ⎥ (1.10)
⎝ me ⎠ Te E exe ⎣ Te ⎦
1/ 2
me ⎛ 4ΛLCh n0e 4ωce ⎞ c ⎡− E ⎤
I ce ≈ c 2
⎜ ⎟ exp ⎢ exe ⎥
L ⎜⎝ 3Te Eexeω ⎟⎠ Lω ⎣ Te ⎦
(1.11)
1/ 2
⎡ − Eexe ⎤ ⎛ 8πn03 L3 miσ i e 6 ⎞
Where exp ⎢ ⎥ ≈ ⎜⎜ 4
⎟⎟ (1.12)
⎣ Te ⎦ ⎝ me E exe ⎠
1/ 2
⎛ 2Λω ce Lmiσ i C h ⎞
I ce ≈ 4n0 c e ⎜⎜
3 10
⎟⎟ Which is square root
⎝ 3ω Te E exe
3 5
⎠
of Hazarika constant times the VASIMR.
VASIMR DANISHA©
2
1
γ =
τ
This provides the confinement time for the VASIMR
DANISHA© as
−1 In secs(1.13)
⎡ V ⎛ lω
1 ⎞
4
⎤
τ = = ⎢ 2X ⎜⎜ pi ⎟⎟ + gL−n1 ⎥
VASIMR DANISHA
γ ⎢⎣ C h lω ⎝ c ⎠ ⎥⎦
is 7 times the
VASIMR gives us 7 X
8000 hrs=56000 hrs=2333.33 days=6.392 years
For power of DANISHA©
3 7
⎛ ωc ⎞ ⎛ c ⎞
PDANISHA = me nC h3 ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎜ω ⎟ ⎜ lω ⎟
⎝ pi ⎠ ⎝ pi ⎠
(1.14)
C h =Hazarika constant for DANISHA VASIMR

First bracket term is velocity component; second bracket term is a
constant non-dimensional quantity. Considering initially that the
VASIMR is having 1400 N/m as the power we get for
DANISHA©
P (DANISHA©) = 18.525 times the VASIMR=18.525 X 1400

N/m = 25935 N/m (1.15)
3
COMPARISION OF PARABOLIC AND

PLANAR SYSTEM FOR SHEARED AXIAL
VELOCITY
2.5
NORMALIZEDGROWTH
2
RATE
1.5 Series1
1 Series2
0.5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
NORMALIZED WAVE NUMBER
Fig.1.Series 1: Sheared axial velocity with

Parabolic Coordinates, Series 2: Sheared
Axial velocity with planar coordinates.
PLOT FOR SHEARED AXIAL
VELOCITY VS GROWTH RATE IN
PARABOLIC COORDINATES
2.5
THRATE
2 Series1
Series2
1.5
GROW
Series3
1 Series4
0.5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
WAVE NUMBER
Fig2.For V=105, 2X105, 3X105, 4X105
3
PLOT FOR FLR IN PARABOLIC

COORDINATES
2.5
GROWTH RATE
2
1.5 Series1
1 Series2
0.5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
WAVE NUMBER
Fig.3 Series 1: FLR=1.0, Series 2: FLR=2.0
We can observe that the sheared axial velocity suppress the

instability in the parabolic coordinates more than the planar
coordinates which is shown is in Fig.1.But for the parabolic
coordinates with sheared axial velocity, V= 105, 2X105, 3X105,
4X105 it remains static for higher than V= 2X105 is shown in the
Fig.2.FLR stabilizes the instability for the normalized value 2.0,
whereas it shows some instability in the initial stage for FLR=1.0
then stabilizes for higher wave number is exhibited in Fig.3.The
results are in affirmation to the results given by Qui et al(2002).
For Hazarika’s constant derivation
The basic equations which governs the DANISHA are as

follows
1
ηJ = E + v × B , ∇P = ∇ p
c
(1.16)
3
r r
(
E ≡ 0, E ,0 )
r r
( r
B ≡ Bθ ,0, Bφ )
(1.17)
v ≡ (v ⊥ ,0, vc )
r r r
p ≡ ( p(r ),0,0)
(1.18)
Here η ,finite conductivity, Te (electron temperature) ,E ( electric
field), v ⊥i (perpendicular ion velocity), χ (magnetic
r
diffusivity), µ (viscosity) , p e (electron pressure), B (magnetic
field), p i (ion pressure ) ,q(safety factor) .
According to the geometry of the considered device the

magnetic field also changes. The magnetic field coils are arranged
around the DANISHA hub in the toroidal way, the toroidal
r r
magnetic field is Bθ = 6 Bθ and the poloidal magnetic field is
given by
r r
Bφ = Bφ (1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ ) .The total
r r r
magnetic field is given by B = eˆθ Bθ + eˆφ Bφ , (1.19)
r r r
B = 6 Bθ + Bφ (1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )
(1.20)
B = Bθ [6 + s (1 + 4π sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )]
(1.21)
where s is the magnetic ratio.
Therefore the beta
parameter,
8πnT
β=
Bθ2 [6 + s(1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )]
2
for DANISHA hub, the toroidal;
3
8πnT
βθ =
Bθ2 [6 + s(1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )]
2
(1.22)
Poloidal;
where
8πnTs 2
βφ =
Bφ2 [6 + s(1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )]
2
is Hazarika’s factor for DANISHA hub

Here we have for equilibrium condition
r
∇p = J × B ` (1.23)
∇p = − 2
R Ch
1
2
1
2
[ 2
∇ 16 R 2 C h Bθ2 ]
⎛ Bφ2 C h
2
⎞
⎜
+ ⎜1 +
⎜ 16 Bθ2
⎟
RC
1
⎟⎟ h R 2 C 2 +
U
c 2η
R 2
C [
h
2
∇ φ ×
r
Bφ ]
⎝ ⎠ h
Here
(1.24)
C h = (1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ ) is

Hazarika’s constant for DANISHA
(1.25)
This is Hazarika’s DANISHA formula for equilibrium, where U is
the feedback loop voltage which considers here absent for the
present study.
The resistivityη can be expressed by electron-ion

m
collision frequency η = ν ei 2 with this we get Hazarika’s
e n
3
diffusion term as
ν ei mTc 2
= ν ei rL2 [6 + sC h ] , rL is the finite
−2
DH =
e B [6 + sC h ]
2 2 2
ηc 2
ion larmor radius for DANISHA hub. Dm = is the
4π
magnetic diffusion coefficient describing the skin effect.
Magnetic diffusion for DANISHA is
ν ei mTc 2
= ν ei rL2 [6 + sC h ] , rL is
−2
DmH = finite
e B [6 + sC h ]
2 2 2
larmor radius
BANANA REGIME
If we do not consider collisions still all the particles in

DANISHA plasma could move freely round the quad (four) tori
along the field lines. Magnetic field differs and varies along the
field lines a length of the
(
order qR 1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ , a particle )
sees magnetic mirrors at a distance of the
(
qR 1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ strength )
of
⎛ ∆B ⎞
mirrors ⎜ ⎟ ratio is given by the inverse aspect ratio.
⎝ B ⎠
⎛ ∆B ⎞ r
⎜ ⎟≈
⎝ B ⎠ R(1 + 4π + sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )
(1.26)
The term in the denominator within bracket is Hazarika’s
constant for DANISHA
3
Particles trapped between such mirrors according to the law of

1
energy conservation is µB + mvc2 = cons tan t or
2
1
µ∆B + ∆ mvc2 = 0 it hold for
2
1 ⎛1 ⎞ 1
∆ mvc2 = ⎜ mvc2 ⎟ Here µ = mv ⊥ that gives us
2
2 ⎝ 2 ⎠ max 2
magnetic moment
∆B vc2 r
=− 2 = 〈〈1
B v ⊥ R(1 + 4π sin 3φ sin θ − 2 sin φ − 2 sin θ )
(1.27)
Drift is in the vertical direction with velocity as

mv ⊥2 v ⊥2τ PA
2
v drift = =
eB[6 + sC h ]RC h RC h [6 + sC h ]
eBθ
Where τ PA =
−2
, cyclotron frequency. The time required to
m
fly particles from one mirror to another r mirror is the time
qRC h
.The particles moves a distance which is given by skin
vc
depth, δ out of a magnetic surface in the vertical direction.
SKIN DEPTH
qRC h mv ⊥2 q ⎛v ⎞ q
δ = v drift = = rL ⎜ ⊥ ⎟
vc eBvc [6 + sC h ] ⎜v
⎝ c
⎟ [6 + sC h ]
⎠
3
1/ 2
qR1 / 2 C h
δ = rL is the Hazarika’s diffusion coefficient
[6 + sC h ]r 1 / 2
(1.28)
Where
mv⊥
rL = , finite larmor radius (FLR) for DANISHA
eB[6 + sC h ]
1/ 2
hub .Here we see that skin depth is R1 / 2 C h factor more than
the Tokomak .This thickness of banana like orbits we may call the
crescent of a moon .If we consider collisions than reversal of vc
occurs, vc 〈〈v ⊥ . This means that a part of a banana thickness
therefore replaces the gyro radius in plane geometry then trapped
v2 RC h
particles collision frequency is given by vt = v≈ v
vc r
,the no. of trapped particles is proportional to the vc internal
given by tapping condition i.e.,
nvc r
nt = =n
v RC h
(1.29)
HAZARIKA’S DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT
A stochastic process with δ as step size then yields the

diffusion coefficient
3/ 2
n ⎡ RC ⎤
DB = δ vt t = rL2ν t q 2 ⎢ h ⎥
2
This is Bohm diffusion
n ⎣ r ⎦
3
DH = rL2νq 2 , Hazarika’s diffusion coefficient

D ps
DH = , Hazarika’s diffusion coefficient and is
[6 + sC h ]2
equal to 12.63787, DPS is Pfrisch-Schluter diffusion coefficient,
now the Bohm diffusion becomes
3/ 2
⎡ RC ⎤
DB = DH ⎢ h ⎥
⎣ r ⎦
(1.30)
HAZARIKA’S REGIME
This condition stands valid for trapping the particle

inhibited by collision i.e.
vt qRC h
〈1 (1.31)
vc
2
v 2 R 2Ch
2
qRC h 3 / 2 ⎛ v ⎞
ν 3q = A Where A=⎜ ⎟
vc r 2
rλ D ⎜v ⎟
⎝ c⎠
(1.32)
Or λ D 〉 A 3 / 2 qRC h where λ D is the mean free path thus, the
left regime is
qRC h 〈 λ D 〈 A 3 / 2 qRC h (1.33)

1
D B , D H , D PS ≈
λD
One has D B (λ D )
= A 3 / 2 qRC h = D H [λ D = qRC h ] where
Bohm diffusion is DB , D PS (λ D = qR )
3
Inner part is plateau regime (flat region), and then smooth

transition from banana to Pfrisch-Schluter regime then to
Hazarika’s regime.
It culminates with two effects of importance

(I) Bootstrap current
(II) Ware effect
BOOTSTRAP CURRENT
The induction effect of high diffusion velocity leading to

a current density in toroidal direction
1/ 2
4v − c dp ⎡ r ⎤ 1
J B = Bθ B = ⎢ ⎥ (1. 34)
η c 4 Bθ dr ⎣ RC h ⎦ [4 + qC h ]
As poloidal current is absent we get terms with toroidal field only
3
1/ 2
4d − cπ dp ⎡ r ⎤ 1
rBθ = ⎢ ⎥ (1. 35)
rdr Bθ dr ⎣ RC h ⎦ [6 + sC h ]
The high diffusion velocity leading to a current density in the
toroidal direction is gives toroidal beta as
p 8π p
βθ = = (1. 36)
Bφ2 Bθ2 [6 + sC h ]
2
8π
Since the diffusion velocity should not exceed the magnetic field
in plasma with finite resistivity. For banana regime
1 1
β < 3/ 2 2
,β = β pol which are in agreement with
A q q A2
2
earlier results. Pfrisch –Schluter diffusion is expressed by

v D ≈ q 2 v cl , the classical diffusion velocity is given by
1
vcl = β v mag with magnetic diffusion velocity as we know that
2
2vcl
v D < v mag we get the plasma beta as β <
[6 + sC h ]v D
q 2 vcl
=> v D ≈ which is known as Hazarika’s diffusion
[6 + sC h ]
expression. And from this we get β θ < 1 , therefore
A2
β< is considerably different from earlier results that
[6 + sC h ]
are obtained by the other authors.
4
WARE EFFECT
Here the usual E/B drift is replaced by
cE
vD = for the ware effect in DANISHA hub.
Bθ [6 + sC h ]
DANISHA HALL Thruster
cE
vd = (1.37)
Bθ [6 + sC h ]
Drift velocity
cφ
vd = (1.38)
Bθ [6 + sC h ]kT
mcφ
Thrust = F = mv d = (1.39)
Bθ [6 + sC h ]kT
φ
F= in Newton units (1.40)
ω c [6 + sC h ]kT
CONFINEMENT TIME
β pol 〈 A1 / 2 For impurity transport as long as the

2
temperature profile is flatter than as given by Tn but it is
2
modified by Hazarika factor C h .If we put C h = 1 in
v τ DH τ MH 〉 q R C h we can get
2 2 2 2
thH
2
vthH τ DH τ MH 〉 q 2 R 2 this is given by Samain and Werkoff (1977)
4
τ DH is deflection time
τ MH is Maxwellian time for Hydrogen ions.
2
0.97 × 10 −16 ne r 3 RC h Bφ
τ Ee = 1/ 2
for experimental purpose
Te Ip
also. (1.41)
In the present study it is shown that DANISHA hub is
better than the tokomak case which is depicted in the Fig.1 and
the Fig.2. In Fig.1 it is shown that how DANISHA hub is broader
the tokomak case in particle trapping .In Fig.2 it is shown that it
takes less confinement time than the tokomak case and is
epicentric whereas the tokomak case takes more time to come to
the stabilized condition as compared to DANISHA. Therefore the
confinement will remain for longer period without any instability
generated therein.
PARTICLE TRAPPING IN HAZARIKA’S (BANANA)

REGIME
Here we can observe that the particle trapped which is
exhibited by the Hazarika’s regime (banana) is broader than the
Tokomak case in Fig.1.
HAZARIKA'S REGIME(BANANA)
1
15 10 2
14 5 3
13 4
12 0 5 Series1
11 6
10 9 8 7
4
Fig.1. The particle are trapped in showed region Hazarika’s

(banana) regime which calculated from skin depth eqn. (11),
q=2.5, R/r=1.5, rL =3.5, θ = 0.1, φ = 0.2 in radians
COMPARISION OF TOKOMAK AND DUO TRIAD

TOKOMAK COLLIDER(DTTC)
1
15150 2
14 100 3
13 50 4 TOKOMA Series1
12 0 5 K
DTTC Series2
11 6
10 7
9 8
Series 1. Tokomak, Series 2.DANISHA (HUB)

FIG.2.Comparision of Hazarika’s (banana) regime for DANISHA
(HUB) and Tokomak is shown for θ = 0.1, φ = 0.2 in
radians=2.5, R=1.5 in eqn. (14).
It is observed from the above graph that the confinement time
required for the DANISHA (HUB) is much lesser than the
Tokomak case.
4
PLOT OF FLR VS SKIN DEPTH
0.7
0.6
S KIN DE P T H
0.5
0.4 TOKOMAK Series1
0.3 DTTC Series2
0.2
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
FLR( x 0.1 )
Fig.3 Comparison of skin depth of tokomak and DANISHA

for different FLR
From Fig.3 one can see that the skin depth of tokomak
and DANISHA for different FLR which is less for DANISHA
case.
Condition for particle trapping: The velocity should be less

than equal to the centrifugal force v ≤ 2rg , the motion of
2
the particle is oscillatory and the particle never loses contact with
the circular path. v 2 〉 2rg , the particle leaves the circle and
then describes a parabolic path. If v = 2rg , the motion of the
2
particle becomes oscillatory and it goes unto it attains diametrical

path by performing the banana (Hazarika’s) regime path.
The present study is in relevance to the earlier studies

done by Pfrisch(1978)and Pfrisch and Schluter(1962),Samain and
Werkoff(1977).If we substitutive in the major radius with
C h = 1 only R remains ,we get the same results of
4
Pfrisch(1978).The present study contains enhancement in the skin

depth ,banana regime, bootstrap current, ware effect, diffusion
coefficient as Hazarika’s diffusion coefficient ,Hazarika’s factor
for DANISHA hub .The DANISHA hall thruster provides us
2.646 more thrust than the SPT-100 thruster. The power is 18.5
times more than SPT-100. results are in agreement with Ning et al
(2009).
APPLICATIONS:
In DANISHA one can observe two types of cases which

govern the system as the polarity of the magnetic field changes.
(I)For current generation, (II) for rockets and missiles, (III)
Hybrid technology
Case I: FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION

As the polarity of magnetic field changes the flow of plasma also
changes say if in both of the torus for all the four torus the
magnetic field is in clockwise direction there will be collisional
effect in the collider region of DANISHA which will give rise to
more heat and friction and resulting in slowing down motion of
plasma in collider region .Afterwards the plasma becomes
consistent in every cycle of flow, which can be observed in this
region as well as in DANISHA as a whole. Bhatia and Hazarika
(1995) showed that in space the self gravitating superposed
plasma flow past each other stabilizes the system. It can be useful
for generation and getting the current density in enormous
quantity which is useful for generation of electricity.
POWER LAW:
Here the definition of power is used to derive the power law.
dW
Power = Rate of change of work done = P = (1.42)
dt
Work done = Force X Distance
Force= Pressure per unit area
4
p
F= where p is pressure and σA is cross sectional area of
σA
DANISHA
d
Where γ = is growth rate.
dt
pR
W = C h , hence we get the power as
σA
γpR
P= Ch In MW (1.43)
σA
Case II: ROCKET AND MISSILES

When we have the change in polarity of magnetic field say in one
torus it runs in anti-clockwise and in other clockwise direction in
such case we observe that the flow of plasma is accelerated in the
collider region of DANISHA and may or may not become
turbulent flow which is useful for propulsion system for the use in
rockets, missiles and spacecraft etc. It is observed that the
velocity drift in such case is C h times that of Tokomak case.
Here the plasma is acting as the superposed flowing one over the
other hence enhancing the velocity of resultant plasma which is
observed by several researchers in past Bhatia and Hazarika
(1996).
Case III: HYBRID TECHNOLOGY

Like the case II here we use the same type of system resulting into
the different type of technology which is prevalent in many places
known as the Hybrid technology. The accelerated neutrons which
can be extracted from the DUO TRIAD TOKAMAK COLLIDER
(DANISHA) HUB can be used in Fission Chamber where we
need the those neutrons as for the fusion purpose the fast neutrons
are waste products leading to the heating of plasma chamber, so it
can be used through neutrons collecting blackest used and can be
4
channelized to the Uranium or plutonium based nuclear/atomic

reactors.
Case IV: COMPUTERS AND TELEVISION

The growth rate is measured in per second (Hz) which gives us
the speed compiling or formation of plasma. If it is used in
computer chips will give us the processing speed of the
microprocessor. Similarly we can enhance the speed of the
normally used microprocessor by 1.5 times say if the speed is
3.6GHz in the present condition the microprocessor speed
becomes 5.9 GHz. The calculation speed of the microprocessor
becomes 5.9 Giga flops (i.e. 5.9 Giga floating points per second).
If it is used in super computer with calculation speed of 1.73
Teraflops, the resultant will be near about 150 Tera floating points
per second (150X1012 floating points per second).We can enhance
the resolution of the computer monitor screen as well as that of
the plasma TVs confinement time can be reduced with better
resolution. The resolution is 24.75% better than the present best
available computer monitor or plasma TVs .One particular brand
of plasma and LCD TVs are projecting that it can give 1:1000000
resolution , here in this particular case it will be 1:1500000
resolution . No blurred images rather only crystal clear screen can
view from 172 degrees wide angle without any diminishing
images from side view angle. This entire thing can be done by
using the nanotechnology and peizo-electrononics.
REFERENCES
1. Hazarika,A.B.R.: Submitted in Physics of Plasma
(2009a)& 13th National symposium on plasma Science
&Technology, Rajkot(1998); 16th National symposium
on plasma Science &Technology, Guwahati(2001)
2. Hazarika,A.B.R.: Submitted in Physics of Plasma

(2009b)& 18th National symposium on plasma
Science &Technology, Ranchi(2003);19th National
symposium on plasma Science &Technology,
Bhopal(2004)
4
3. Hazarika,A.B.R.: Submitted in Plasma of Plasmas

(2009c)& Proceeding of 20th National symposium on
plasma Science &Technology, Cochin Univ. of Sci. &
Technology, Cochin(2005) ;
4. Hazarika, A.B.R.: Submitted in Physic of plasma

(2009d)& Proceeding of 3rd Technical meeting of
International Atomic Energy Agency on Theory of
Plasma Instabilities, Univ. of York, York,
UK(2007),31pp
5. Pfirsch, D: Theoretical and computational plasma

physics (1978), IAEA-SMR-31/21, pp59.
6. Pfrisch, D., SCHLUTER, A.: Max-Planck-Institut fur
Physik und Astrophsik, Munich, Rep.
MPI/PA/7/62(1962).
7. Kerner, W: Z. Naturforsch. 33a,792(1978)
8. Samain,A., Wekoff, F: Nuc. Fus. 17,53(1977)
9. Bhatia, P.K and Hazarika, A.B.Rajib :Phy Scr
53,57(1996)
10. Hazarika,A.B.R: Proceeding of National symposium
of Plasma Science and
Technology(2009),Hamirpur(HP)
11. Bhatia, P.K. and Hazarika, A.B.Rajib : J Ind. Acad.
Maths.29(1),141(2007)
12. Gaunge. J, Lin. H and Xiao -Ming. Q: Plasma Sci &
Tech 7(3),2805(2005)
13. Xiao-Ming. Q, Lin .H, Guangde. J: Plasma Sci &
Tech. 4(5),1429(2002)
14. Ning. Z, Yu. D, Li. H and Yan. G : Plasma Sci and
Tech. Vol.11(2),194(2009)
15. Qui, X.M, Huang, L, Jian, G: Plasma Sci &Tech, 5,
1429(2002)
16. De Groot, J.S, Toor, A, Goldberg, S.M et al: Phys
Plasmas 4, 1519(1997)
4
17. Haines, M.G.: IEEE transaction on Plasma Sci.26,

1275(1998)
18. Shumlak, U and Hartman, C.W.: Phys Rev. Lett. 75,
3285(1995)
19. Arber, T.D,Coppins, M, Scheffel, J: Phys Rev. Lett.
77, 1766(1996)
20. Ganguly, G: Phys Plasmas 4, 2322(1997)
21. Qui, X,M ,Huang,L and Jian,G.D: Chin. Phys Lett.
19,217(2002)
22. Turchi, P.J and Baker,W.L: J. Appl. Phys,
44,4936(1973)
23. Morozov, A.I: Introduction to Plasma Kinetics,
Fizmat, Moscow(2006)
24. Choueiri, E Y: Physics of Plasmas, 8, 1411(2001)
Introduction to different types of Propulsion system
1. Electric Propulsion System

More than three hundred electric propulsion thrusters have flown
on over 100 spacecraft over the last thirty five years and a
significant increase in usage is expected over the next decade. The
1990s have been described as the ‘era of application [27]’ because
the benefits of electric propulsion are being realized on numerous
commercial satellite missions and there has been an increase in
flight activity for a broad spectrum of electric propulsion devices.
Advancements in electric propulsion related technologies and
thruster design 3 improvements, based on extensive ground and
flight test results, have brought some electric propulsion devices
to a high level of technological maturity. The risk of employing
electric thrusters on spacecraft has diminished in recent years due
to an increase in the number of successful electric thruster
missions, improvements in thruster materials and designs, and an
improved understanding of fundamental thruster operating
principles and spacecraft integration issues. With the increasing
emphasis on lowering the mass of spacecraft propulsion systems,
increasing spacecraft orbiting lifetimes, and reducing overall
4
costs, together with greater amounts of electric power now

available on-board spacecraft, the applications for electric
propulsion systems will certainly continue to grow. Electric
propulsion technology has matured to a point where its expanded
use for select space missions is justified from both a technological
and an economic standpoint. Electric thrusters can outperform
conventional chemical (liquid and solid propellant) propulsion
systems for certain space missions because of their generally
higher specific impulse values. For select missions, replacing
current chemical propulsion systems with high performance
electric propulsion systems can provide substantial mass and cost
savings, increased orbiting lifetimes, and increased mission
capabilities. The current and likely near-term electric thruster
missions include station keeping, drag compensation, attitude
control, station repositioning, orbit raising or lowering, orbit
repositioning, and maneuvering of interplanetary spacecraft [49].
Electric propulsion is the acceleration of propellant gases by any

of electrical heating, electric or magnetic, or both of field forces to
provide propulsive thrust to a vehicle. It involves the conversion
of electrical energy into kinetic energy of the exhaust gases. There
are numerous electric propulsion devices described in the
literature, which can be grouped into at least one of three
fundamental categories.
Electro-thermal Propulsion - the propellant is heated using

electrical energy, and the hot propellant gas is then
thermodynamically expanded and accelerated through an exhaust
nozzle, e.g. resistojet and arcjet thrusters.
Electro-static Propulsion - the propellant atoms are ionized and

accelerated
out of the thruster by electrostatic field forces. The exhausted
propellant ions are neutralized by electrons emitted from an
external cathode, e.g. ion thruster and field emission electric
propulsion thruster.
5
Electromagnetic Propulsion - the propellant is ionized and

accelerated by the combined interaction of electric and magnetic
field forces on the resultant propellant plasma, e.g. Hall thruster,
pulsed plasma thruster, and magneto-plasma-dynamic thrusters.
New electric propulsion technologies designed to operate at
higher power (5 – 50 kW) for future long range planetary
exploration and large velocity change maneuvers are under study.
This effort has in part been a response to NASA’s Project
Prometheus [42], a technology program to develop safe, efficient
high power sources for solar system exploration. In primary
propulsion on micro spacecraft or fine position control of
conventional spacecraft has driven the interest in sub kilowatt
thrusters [10].
2. Resistojet
A resistojet is a device that heats a propellant stream by passing it

through an ohmically heated chamber before the propellant is
expanded through a downstream nozzle. In resistojets, the
propellant is fed into the thruster and heated while flowing over
an immersed resistance heater or over thruster chamber surfaces
heated by radiation from an isolated resistance heater [27, 38].
Resistojets (MR-501, MR-502A, HiPEHT, etc.) have accumulated
a substantial flight history onboard at least 75 spacecraft since
1965 [27], mainly performing north-south station keeping (NSSK)
and some attitude control, east-west station keeping (EWSK), on-
orbit maneuvering, and limited on-orbit boosting. Future resistojet
missions include station keeping, orbit insertion, and de-orbit
functions. Resistojets have been used on Lockheed Martin Astro
Space (LMAS) Series 4000 and 5000 satellites and recently on
Iridium satellites.
3. Arcjet
An arcjet is a device that heats a propellant stream by passing a
high current electrical arc through it, before the propellant is
expanded through a downstream nozzle [38]. In arc jets, an
electrical arc discharge is initiated between a central cathode and
5
a coaxial anode, which also acts as the thruster’s nozzle. The

propellant is fed into the thruster and heated while flowing
through and around the arc discharge. A research group from the
Kharkov Aviation Institute (KhAI), which was established with
Russian industrial companies and still keeps working relations
with them, has presented an analytical study of gas acceleration in
the supersonic nozzle of the arcjet thruster [68]. The heat transfer
in supersonic flow under electrical discharge results in significant
displacement of the critical throat comparing with classic
adiabatic flow. Key parameters like an expansion angle and throat
position were presented as functions of arc parameters. Since
1993, arc jets (MR-508, MR-509, and MR-510) have been used
for NSSK on at least six LMAS Series 7000 and A-2100 satellites
and are base lined for several future satellites. In 1997-1998, arc
jets were used on both an experimental USAF orbit raising
mission (26-kW ESEX arcjet) and an orbit insertion/maintenance
mission (ATOS arcjet).
4. Ion Thruster
An ion thruster is a device that accelerates propellant ions by an

electrostatic field [38]. In ion thrusters, neutral propellant atoms
are fed into a discharge chamber and ionized by bombardment
with electrons emitted from a cathode in a low voltage electrical
discharge. Since 1962, ion thrusters have flown on about eleven
experimental spacecraft. Several ion thrusters (XIPS-13, XIPS-25,
IES, and UK-10) and a radiofrequency ion thruster (RIT-10) were
launched to provide NSSK for several operational satellites.
Hughes used their XIPS-13 ion thruster on HS-601, PAS-5, and
Galaxt 8-i satellites and their XIPS-25 ion thruster on HS-702 and
Galaxy 10 satellites [27, 49]. Keldysh Research Center presented
results of numerical simulation of a low-power Xe-ion thruster
with an advanced, slit-type accelerating system. Experiments were
carried out for the power range of 50-150 W and specific impulse
values of 2500 – 3500 s were achieved. Highest values of thruster
efficiency were about 65 % [68]. The NSTAR electron
bombardment ion thruster was provided primary propulsion for
5
the Deep Space-1 spacecraft on the first flight of NASA’s New

Millennium program in 1998. The success of the Deep Space 1
technology demonstration has led to the planned use of three
NSTAR ion thrusters for the DAWN mission to explore Ceres and
Vesta, two protoplanets between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
[10]. DAWN, rescheduled for launch in September 2007, would
be the first NASA space science mission to implement electric
propulsion. Boeing Electron Dynamics Division (EDD) is
developing the 30 cm ion thrusters for this Discovery-class
mission. The NSTAR thruster extended life test ended this year
after more than 30,300 hr of operation, having processed over 230
kg of xenon. The NSTAR program far exceeded its original goals
of 8,000 hr of operation with a total xenon throughput of 83 kg.
The NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) is designed to
deliver a throttle able 7 kW, 40 cm ion thruster with a xenon
throughput capability of over 400 kg, a specific impulse (Isp) of
2,200 – 4,120 sec, and a thrust of 50 – 210 mN. Two NASA-led
teams continued work toward the development of a long-life
engine system for power levels greater than 20 kW and Isp in the
6,000-8,000-sec range. The High Power Ion Propulsion team, led
by NASA Glenn is developing an 8,000 sec, 25 kW girded ion
thruster using a microwave ionization source and neutralizer in a
rectangular geometry. The JPL-led team is developing the nuclear
electric xenon ion system, which will include advanced carbon-
carbon grids and a reservoir hollow cathode, in an effort to
develop a 20 kW, 7,500 sec Isp thruster with high propellant
throughput capability. On January 31, 2003, ESA’s latest
telecommunication technology demonstration satellite, Artemis,
reached its assigned geostationary orbit after an 18 month
transfer. The spacecraft had used its experimental ion propulsion
system, consisting of two RIT-10 and T5 thrusters, to complete
the maneuver.
5. Field Emission Electric Propulsion
In field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) thrusters, the liquid

propellant is fed to the tip of a needle-like emitter and intense
5
local electric fields cause charged liquid droplets to spontaneously

form. The charged liquid droplets are extracted away from the
liquid surface and accelerated by the electrostatic fields.
6. Electromagnetic Propulsion
A magneto plasma dynamic thruster is a device that accelerates

propellant plasma by internal or external magnetic field acting on
an internal arc current [38].
Magneto plasma dynamic (MPD) thrusters frequently use similar

electrode geometries as arc jets and also use an electrical arc
discharge. However, the majority of thrust generated in MPDTs is
due to electromagnetic forces exerted on the propellant plasma by
interaction with the arc and the self-induced magnetic field. In
pulsed plasma, a portion of the propellant feedstock (typically
solid Teflon) is ablated and ionized by an electrical arc discharge
sheet initiated between two electrodes by a discharging capacitor.
The resultant propellant plasma is accelerated by interaction with
the arc and the self-induced magnetic field.
5
Table 1.1: Thrust systems and their specific

impulse [75]
I
Effective s
Engine Exhaust p Thrust Duration
(
s
Velocity (m/s) ) (N)
Solid rocket 1,000 - 4,000 100 103 − 107 minutes
Resistojet
rocket 2,000 - 6,000 10−2 − 10 minutes
Arcjet rocket 4,000 - 12,000 10−2 − 10 minutes
Hall thruster 8,000 - 50,000 1,500 10−3 − 10 months
Ion thruster 15,000 - 80,000 5,000 10−3 − 10 months
10,000 -
VASIMR 300,000 30,000 40 - 1,200 days - months
7. Hall Thrusters
The Hall thruster is a plasma propulsion device designed in the
1960s. The inventor is A. I. Morozov. They are mostly known as
electric propulsion thrusters for spacecraft, and are also called
stationary plasma thrusters (SPTs). The advantages (SPTs). The
advantages of the Hall thruster are higher thrust densities and
specific impulses between 1 and 2000 sec. These advantages
promise to
5
Figure 1.1: The Hall thruster diagram [9]. 1) Magnetic system; 2)

insulator;
3) anode; 4) cathode; 5) gas inlet.
increase operating lifetime and payload mass. Because of these

advantages, the Hall thrusters are considered ideal for many on-
orbit applications including station keeping, orbit re-phasing, and
orbit transfer of geosynchronous communication satellites. It has
become clear that the physical processes in the Hall thrusters are
extremely complicated, despite the simple construction of the
devices. The discharge in the Hall thrusters is unlike any other
known discharge. It is characterized by the spatial separation of
the ionization and acceleration zones.
In the ionization zone, crossed electric and magnetic fields are

present with the radial directional magnetic field crossing the wall
while the axial directional electric field is tangential to them. A
free path length of charged particles much higher than the size of
system, and the drift of electrons is closed. Electrons emitted from
an external hollow cathode are hindered from directly reaching
5
the anode by the radial magnetic field increasing to the outlet of

thruster and become magnetized and confined in an azimuthally
~E ?~B drift motion. The neutral propellant atoms are fed into the
discharge chamber and ionized by bombardment with the
electrons. The radial magnetic field is not strong enough to make
the ions magnetized, because the Larmor radius of the ions is
much bigger than the thruster size. The ions are accelerated
axially by the electric field, and the thrust is produced by
momentum imparted to the ions. Plasma is created with a very
high electron temperature of up to 20 eV within the discharge
[55].
8. SPT Series
Hall thrusters (SPT-50, SPT-70, SPT-100, etc.) have an extensive

flight history on-board Russian spacecraft for NSSK, EWSK,
attitude control, orbit injection and repositioning applications on
more than 50 Russian satellite since 1971 [27, 55]. Hall thrusters
have continued to accumulate flight time on Russian satellites.
Since 1994, more than eight geostationary satellites equipped with
SPT-100-type thrusters have been launched. The total number of
SPT-100 thrusters operated onboard these satellites is more than
64. The maximum operation time on a single SPT-100 has
exceeded 1,500 hr (on Express 11). Stationary plasma thrusters
(SPT) were developed and qualified at DB Fakel. Main functional
specifications of SPT thrusters are listed in Table 1.2.
Thrust Power Isp Efficiency Life time

mN kW sec % hrs
SPT-35a 1 - 10 0.2 1100 35 2000
SPT-50a 20 0.35 1250 35 2250
SPT-70a 40 0.65 1450 48 3100
SPT-100a 83 1.35 1550 52 8000
SPT-140b 290 4.5 1800 51 7000
PPS-1350c 92 1.5 1800 52 8000
5
a b c
Table 1.2: SPT specifications [68], [12], [5]
9. BPT-4000
The Aerojet BPT-4000 Hall thruster underwent qualification tests

[31, 43, 46, 83]. Thruster performance was verified for multimode
operation at 3.0 and 4.5 kW (high thrust mode at a discharge
voltage of 300 V and high Isp mode at 400 V). The target
performance ranges for the thruster are Isp of 1,844 – 2,076 sec
and thrust of 168 – 294 mN [10]. The flight qualification test
program, including an approximately 6,000-hr life test, was
completed by the end of 2004.
10. BHT-200
The BHT-200 Hall thruster [19, 40, 41, 50, 59] originally
developed for the TechSat 21 mission by Busek, is undergoing
life tests at the Air Force Research Lab. NASA-Glenn and Aerojet
were selected to begin the Hi-Voltage Hall Accelerator program
to develop a Hall thruster targeting the 6 – 8 kW power, 2,200 –
2,800 sec Isp performance range. Preliminary testing of the [14]
NASA-457M Hall thruster operating on xenon propellant at
power levels up to 96 kW demonstrated thrust, Isp, and efficiency
of 3.3 N, 3,500 sec, and 58%, respectively.
11. SMART-1 Mission
In September 2003, ESA launched its SMART-1 mission to

explore the Moon. SMART stands for Small Missions for
Advanced Research in Technology. SMART-1 is the first
European spacecraft to travel to and orbit around the Moon. It
traveled to the Moon using solar-electric propulsion with the PPS-
1350 Hall thrusters developed at Snecma and carrying a battery of
miniaturized instruments. Figure 1.2 shows PPS-1350. Its use of
solar electric propulsion as its primary drive mechanism will be a
first for Europe and is essential in paving the way for future ESA
projects with large velocity requirements, such as the Mercury
5
Cornerstone mission [82]. As well as testing new technology,

SMART-1 is making the first comprehensive inventory of key
chemical elements in the lunar surface [74].
Figure 1.2: The PPS-1350 thruster [62]
Motivation
Former investigators have carried out detailed measurements and

indicated that oscillations play a major part in the closed-drift
accelerators with an extended acceleration zone (CDAE) [69], and
verified that high-frequency (Up to 20 MHz) azimuthally waves
(electron drift waves) are exited in a Hall current plasma
accelerator [26]. Two instabilities, ionization instability and
transit-time instability have been found [77], and the relationship
between the amplitude and spectrum of the high-frequency waves
(20 - 400 MHz) on the discharge has been revealed [76].
In 2003, measurements of radiated electric fields from 10 kHz to

18 GHz on a BPT-4000 Hall thruster being qualified for flight
identified many types of emission, including strong
electromagnetic emission in the 1-5 GHz range [43]. The
frequency is similar to satellite communication frequencies (1-20
GHz), so it is of significant concern. The BPT-4000 is a 4.5 kW
5
class thruster. The BPT-4000 Hall thrusters were tested to see the
effect of a plasma plume on reflector antennas [46, 83]. The
purpose of this test was to gain quantitative information on the
effects of the thruster on various spacecraft subsystems and to
help mitigate the risk associated with the introduction of this new
propulsion technology on future spacecraft. Several broad
harmonic peaks have been observed as one can see in Figure 1.3
[43]. These emissions are more than 20 dB above MIL-STD
461E, and 40 dB above spacecraft designers limits. MIL-STD
416E is the requirements of the United States department of
defense [1]. The requirements are for the control of
electromagnetic interference characteristics of subsystems and
equipment.
Ground tests of SPT-140 Hall thrusters were presented in [30, 66].

The SPT-140 is a 4.5 kW class thruster, which is similar to BPT-
4000. Performances of the thruster are 1800 sec of Isp, 51% of
overall system efficiency, and 7200 hrs of lifetime. EMI tests
found very little emission in the traditional RF communication
bands [30], and the emission of the tests is shown in Figure 1.4.
At the lowest frequencies (10 kHz to 20 MHz), E-field emission
exceeded the MIL-STD-461C specification by up to 53 dB. The
SPT-140 was found to emit aperiodic broadband emissions at
levels above the detection threshold from 1 to 3 GHz. An
engineering model SPT-140 Hall thruster was evaluated with
respect to thrust and radiated electromagnetic interference [66],
shown in Figure 1.5. The broadband electromagnetic emission
spectra generated by the engine were measured for a range of
frequencies from 10 kHz to 18 GHz. These results were also
compared to the noise threshold of the measurement system and
MILSTD- 461C.
The emissions at frequencies above 100 MHz were below

MILSTD- 461C and approached the minimum detectable values
at frequencies in excess of 1000 MHz. The different trend from
the work at Beiting et al [43] was shown in the above two
measurements, which demonstrates consistency. Another
6
intensive measurement of emission is reported [16]. Space

Systems/ Loral (SS/L) characterized the emissions of SPT-100
thrusters developed by Design Bureau Fakel, and they are shown
in Figure 1.6. The parameters characterized include emissions
polarization, directivity, magnitude, burst ness, and coherency. In
this paper, strong radiation was shown again in high frequency
range (1 – 7 GHz). About 30 dB higher emission was shown at
the peak around 1.4 – 2 GHz. This trend is similar to the trend of
BPT-4000. To confirm that the measured radiation is indeed ECE,
a simple 2D model was developed for the radiation of a Hall
thruster [32]. The analysis of ECE radiation is performed with the
magnetic field, plasma density, and plasma electron temperature
distributions in a typical Hall thruster. Parameters for the models
were obtained from the literature [21, 65].
6
Chapter 2
Grad B Drifts
Assume the magnetic field lines are straight, in the z direction, but
their density increases in the y direction. The gradient in |B|
causes the Larmor radius to be larger at the bottom of the orbit
than at the top. This leads to a drift, in opposite directions for ions
and electrons, perpendicular to both ~B and .B [20]. The drift
velocity is proportional to rc/L and v., where L is the scale length.
Consider the Lorentz force , averaged over a gyration. Since the
particle spends as much time moving up as down Fx is clearly
equal to 0. Taylor expansion of the magnetic field about the point
x0 = 0 is taken into consideration
2.1: Drift of a particle in a non-uniform magnetic field [20].

2.2 Electron Cyclotron Emission
A plasma immersed in a magnetic field radiates as the result of
the acceleration of the charges in their orbit motions around the
magnetic lines of force. The frequency and angular distribution of
the radiation undergoes dramatic changes as the electron energy is
increased from non-relativistic to extreme relativistic energies [6].
In thermal equilibrium the emission can not exceed black-body
radiation. The peak intensity is independent of the electron
temperature. The intensity emitted in the backward direction is
almost the same as that in the forward direction. The radiation is
distributed over wide angular cones.
2.2.4 Optical Depth
Consider a plasma sphere of radius a. The larger the a, the larger

the re-absorption, until a point is reached at which the volume
emission is just balanced by the black-body radiation from the
surface.The emission at a given frequency has three characteristic
6
regimes, depending on the value of t0 [6]. When t0 ?1, the

radiation seen by the observer suffers negligible self-absorption in
its passage through the medium, and the observer sees essentially
the contribution from each individual volume element along the
ray, that is, the intensity I! = R j! ds. The medium is said to be
optically transparent to the radiation. When t0 ?1, the intensity is a
direct measure of the source function. The medium is said to be
opaque to the radiation. If, at the same time, the medium is in
thermal equilibrium, the medium is said to emit as a black body.
Finally, when t0 is neither very small nor very large compared
with unity, the medium is said to be semitransparent or gray.
Therefore, plasmas in this study are said to be optically
transparent or optically thin. Reabsorption or self-absorption is
negligible.
Chapter 3
Numerical Method
Three approaches for the electron cyclotron emission analysis of

the Hall thrusters are developed.
The first one employs the lumped plasma parameters from the
simple plasma parameter models of a Hall thruster. The plasma
parameter distributions are from the literature. The second method
is the microscopic point of view. This analysis employs the Monte
Carlo (MC) method to select electrons thoroughly, and the
Particle-in-cell (PIC) method to obtain the acceleration data of the
electrons for the cyclotron emissions. Their trajectories are
followed as they move within sampling period. ECE radiation is
calculated with the acceleration data. The fast Fourier transform is
taken to obtain the radiation in the frequency domain. The last
method is the macroscopic point of view. This analysis employs
the hybrid finite element and moment methods (hybrid element
method) to consider the plasma as inhomogeneous dielectric
6
media. The cyclotron motion of the electrons is modeled with two

dipoles with 90. phase difference. The plasma parameters and
magnetic field in the thruster channel region are considered for
the current sources of the dipoles.
3.1 Plasma Parameter Modeling for BPT-4000 class Hall thrusters
]To analyze the ECE radiation, the magnetic field, electron

temperature, and electron density distributions are important
parameters. We assume that the plasma fills an annular region of
width, w, inner radius, rI , and length, L. The configuration of the
Hall thruster considered in this study is shown in Figure 3.1. We
note two critical points along the axial axis: za, a point in the
throat, and zb, the exit point. In distance normalized to L we
assume
za = 0.5 (3.1)
zb = 0.8 (3.2)
3.1.1 1D Modeling
In the 1D modeling, we assume that all quantities are independent

of the azimuthal and radial directions, and depend only on
position in the axial direction. To analyze the ECE radiation, the
magnetic field, electron temperature, and electron density
distributions are important parameters. First, a 1D magnetic
model is considered. In a typical Hall thruster, the radial field is
dominant compared to the axial field [65]. Thus a 1D radial
magnetic field might be adequate to approximate the ECE
radiation. A shifted Gaussian (bell-shaped) magnetic field is
assumed and the maximum value is at the exit plane [9]. The 1D
magnetic field model is given by
Br(z) = B0 + (Bmax - B0) exp[-{(z - zb)/Lb}2] (3.3)

where B0 = 0.2Bmax and Bmax = 0.05 T and Lb = 0.6. This trend
is reported in the literature [54]. Most of the plasma in the channel
of the Hall thruster is quasi-neutral.Therefore the electron density
6
is the same as the ion density in the channel. For the 1D model the
acceleration channel. In this region, the radial magnetic field is
maximum and thus a large number of electrons are inhibited from
moving in the axial direction, resulting in the high probability of
plasma production [9]. Our 1D
electron density model is given by
n = _ na + (nb - na)z/zb z < zb
nb z > zb (3.5)
where na = 2.8×1017 m.3 and nb = 1.6×1018 m.3.
3.1.2 2D Modeling
In the 2D plasma modeling, We assume that all quantities are
independent of the azimuthal angle, which is axisymmetric, and
depend on position in the axial and the radial directions. The two
critical points along the axial direction are used in this modeling.
Additionally some new parameters are introduced.
3.1.3 Magnetic Field Model
For a typical Hall thruster, the magnetic field density at the inner
and outer walls of the channel is higher than at the center line of
the channel. A shifted Gaussian (bell-shaped) radial magnetic
field at center line is assumed and the maximum value is at the
exit plane [9, 69]. The radial and axial magnetic field profiles at
the inner wall, outer wall, and center line of the channel are based
on the data given in [60].
3.1.4 Electron Temperature Model
The electron temperature is not uniform in the channel, and the

maximum temperature appears at the acceleration region but not
at the exit plane. The electron temperature at the exit plane is
actually equal to or lowers than the maximum temperature. This
trend is reported in the literature [54].
3.1.5 Electron Density Model
6
Most of the plasma in the channel of the Hall thruster is quasi-

neutral. Therefore the electron density is the same as the ion
density in the channel. Experimental results show that the plasma
density reaches its peak value inside the acceleration channel.
Electron density model at the center line is given by
nc = _ na + (nb - na)z/zb z < zb
nb z > zb
(3.10)
where na = 2.8 ?1017 m.3 and nb = 1.6 ?1018 m.3.
In order to model the 2D electron density profile, we use the ion
density measurement data given in [21, 29]. The axial electron
density profile for the 2D model is the same as the 1D model,
(3.10).
3.2.1 Electron Density and Electron Temperature
The electron density and electron temperature distributions [9, 21,

65] are reconstructed and used again in this study. Electron
density distributions from the literature .
3.2.2 Magnetic Field
As mentioned before, not only radial but also axial magnetic field
information is required for 2D analysis. Unfortunately, we could
not obtain the structures and currents information to perform
magnetic field analysis, so an alternate way to obtain the magnetic
field distribution was tried. Many, but limited, information about
magnetic field distributions of Hall thrusters are in literature.
Generally, equipotent contours and radial distributions of the
magnetic fields can be easily obtained. Equipotent contours of the
magnetic fields are from [9, 60] and are shown in Figure 3.14.
Radial magnetic field distributions at the center lines are from [9,
11] and are shown in Figure 3.15. If we can generate a similar
contour pattern to the measurement and can obtain the radial
magnetic field distribution from the generated contour pattern,
then the generated contour pattern is weighted according to the
scale between the generated radial field distribution and the
6
measurement. The radial field distribution also shows good

agreement at the exit plane. The exit region is more important for
this analysis than the inside of channel. This is because the exit
region has dominant values of plasma parameters: magnetic
fields, electron density, and electron temperature. However, half
of the channel from the anode side is different. It has a stronger
magnetic field at the center line in our simulation than in the
references. In the references, it also shows much less density than
that of exit plane region. The magnetic field profiles from the
literature are for optimized Hall thrusters, but the generated
distribution is from simplified conventional structure and arbitrary
currents. Consequently, generated field has wider low density
region of magnetic field. This is a low frequency region, so the
region is relatively less important than the exit plane region. This
difference of magnetic field distribution can affect the results.
3.3 The Monte Carlo Method
Statistical simulation methods may be contrasted to conventional

numerical discretization methods, which typically are applied to
ordinary or partial differential equations that describe some
underlying physical or mathematical system. In many applications
of Monte Carlo, the physical process is simulated directly, and
there is no need to even write down the differential equations that
describe the behavior of the system. The only requirement for the
Monte Carlo simulation is the physical or mathematical system
described by probability density functions (PDFs).
For now, we will assume that the behavior of a system can be

described by PDFs. Once the PDFs are known, the Monte Carlo
simulation can proceed by random sampling from the PDFs. The
outcomes of these random samplings must be accumulated in an
appropriate manner to produce the desired result, but the essential
characteristic of Monte Carlo is the use of random sampling
techniques to arrive at a solution of the physical problem. In many
practical applications, we can predict the statistical error, the
6
variance, in this average result, and hence estimate of the number

of Monte Carlo trials that are needed to achieve a given error.
The Monte Carlo sampling result with the Maxwell-Boltzmann

distribution of speeds is shown in Figure 3.20. This result also has
the same trend as before. According to our results from the
normal to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions, we can say that
taking over 100 samples has good agreement with the CDF, and
taking over 1000 samples shows fairly good matchs to both the
PDFs and the CDFs. Consequently, if more than 1000 samples are
selected, then it is enough to represent the distribution.
3.4.Particle-In-Cell
There are many ways to analyze radiation. Two approaches are

suggested in this study. By definition, the radiation is from charge
acceleration [6, 7, 33]. In the first approach, we solve for the
charge acceleration from the Lorentz equation. We then use the
solution to simulate the radiation. The radiation is ultimately
shown in the frequency domain. We will now discuss electron-
neutral collisions in this particle-in-cell code.
3.4.1 Selecting Electrons
We select electrons for the first step of this analysis. One electron
represents a certain number of electrons in this analysis.
Generally, electrons are in the position and velocity coordinates.
Electrons in this analysis have the position, velocity and
acceleration coordinates. We randomly select the initial positions
for the electrons with the uniform distribution. The velocities of
the electrons are also selected stochastically. Velocities have two
components, speed and direction. Let us consider the two
components separately.
3.4.1.1 Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution of Speed
6
The speed of electrons in the Hall thrusters is well represented by

the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution in many cases [13, 17, 21].
In this numerical approach, the distribution is embodied with the
Monte Carlo method shown in section 3.3.1, and only this
distribution is tried. However, we can easily expand this to other
distributions.
3.4.1.2 Isotropic Velocity
After a collision, not only the speed, but also the direction of the
electrons is random. It is called isotropic velocity. Therefore, the
unit vector of the velocity is uniformly distributed on the surface
of a unit sphere. First, we try a simple linear relationship with
uniformly distributed random variables on the interval [0,1].
3.4.2 Time Scale
The electron motions are calculated from the Lorentz force

equation with a sampling time. Deciding the sampling time and
total sampling period is very important for the PIC method.
Shorter sampling time and a longer time period are, of course,
better for the computational accuracy, but it requires a higher
performance of computing. On the other hand, bigger sampling
time and a shorter time period are better for computational load.
We need to find compromising values to achieve both higher
accuracy and acceptable computational load. The time scale is
considered from these two points of view.
3.4.2.1 Fourier Transform Point of view
The electric field from the accelerated electron is calculated and

the Fourier transform is taken to obtain the electric field in the
frequency domain. The sampling time and the total sampling
period are decided from the maximum frequency and the
resolution in the frequency domain, respectively. The frequency
range of ECE is from 1 to 5 GHz. Analysis range up to 50 GHz is
6
enough to cover the ECE radiation, and the resolution of 100

MHz is also detailed enough to check the results. The sampling
time is given by 1/(2 ·50GHz) = 1×10-11s, and the total sampling
period is written by 1/100 MHz = 1 ?10-8s.
3.4.2.2 Magnetic field Point of view
In a numerical simulation, the motion of one particle is stable for

._t < 2, and accurate for ._t = 0.2 [8, 22]. In this analysis, . is .ce
and the maximum magnetic field in the channel region is 1550 G.
For the maximum field, 1550 G, _t is less than 7.3 ?10-12s For
the sampling time, 7.3 ?10-12s is chosen from the magnetic field
point of view, and 1 ?10-8s is chosen for the total sampling period
from the Fourier transform point of view. If we consider a little
margin for the sampling time, then 5×10-12s is good enough.
During the sampling period of 1×10-8s, 2000 samples are needed
with the sampling time of 5 ?10-12s. The resulting range in the
frequency domain is up to 100 GHz from 1/(2 ?5 ?10-12) with the
resolution of 100 MHz from 1/(2000 ?5 ?10-12). 2048 samples,
instead of 2000, can be taken to use the fast Fourier transform.
Then, the frequency range of the result is same as the range of the
2000 sample case. The resolution is 97.7 MHz from 1/(2048 ?5
?10-12]). If 4096 samples are chosen, the frequency range is same
as previous cases, but the resolution is half of the 2048 case, 48.8
MHz, 1/(4096 ?5 ?10-12).
3.5 Numerical Modeling of Electromagnetic Radiation
3.5.1 Hybrid Element Method
A hybrid element method [47] has been devised where finite

elements are coupled to boundary elements.
The basic technique is to apply the equivalence principle to
transform the original problem into interior and exterior problems,
which are coupled on the exterior dielectric body surface through
the continuities of the tangential electric field and magnetic field.
7
The interior problem involving the inhomogeneous medium is

solved by the finite element method, and the exterior problem
involving unbounded region is solved by the moment method
[88]. A detailed formulation of the hybrid moment and finite
element method is described in [47]. A hybrid method code
named EMAP5 was announced from the electromagnetic
compatibility laboratory of the university of Missouri-Rolla [34,
39, 86]. EMAP5 is a full-wave electromagnetic field solver that
combines the method of moments with a vector finite element
method [25]. The FEM is employed to handle the interior domain
of inhomogeneous dielectric bodies and the method of moments is
used to develop surface integrals that relate the field quantities on
boundary surfaces with the equivalent surface currents. These
integral equations are then coupled to the finite element equations
through the continuity of the tangential magnetic fields [34].
EMAP5 is designed primarily to simulate electromagnetic
interference sources at the printed circuit board level [2]. They
tried many other examples with EMAP5 [25, 81, 85]. The
EMAP5 code can be freely downloaded from the website [25].
We use EMAP5 to analyze the radiation of the plasma as
inhomogeneous media.
3..5.2 Near & Far Fields
The space surrounding an antenna is usually subdivided into three

regions: reactive near field, radiating near field (Fresnel) and far
field (Fraunhofer) regions [4]. The outer boundary of reactive
near field region is commonly taken to exit at a distance R <
0.62pD3/ from the antenna surface, where . is the wavelength
and D is the largest dimension of the antenna. The inner boundary
of the Fresnel region is taken to be the distance R = 0.62pD3/
and the outer boundary the distance R < 2D2/. D must also be
large compared to the wavelength (D > ). For a very short
dipole, a distance R < /2p from the antenna surface is
commonly used. This criterion is based on a maximum phase
7
error of p/8. The Fraunhofer region is commonly taken to exit at

distances greater than 2D/ from the antenna. For a very short
dipole, the region of distances R > /2p is referred to as the
intermediate field region while that for R » ./2p is referred to as
the Fraunhofer region or the far field region. In this study, the
length of antennas is about 1 mm with frequency of 1 GHz. ./2p =
30 cm / 6.28 = 4.8 cm. Observation distance in this study is 1 m.
The distance is more than ten times bigger than the criterion.
Therefore, radiation regime in this study is the far field or
Fraunhofer region.
7
Chapter 4
Code Validation
Before discussing the results of this study, we show the validation
and/or verification of the numerical codes with examples. Two
numerical codes are being used in this study. First one is the PIC
code to analyze radiation with the electron motion information,
and the other is hybrid element method code to solve the radiation
problems with inhomogeneous dielectrics. The most important
thing for the PIC code is the accuracy of particle motions
including positions, velocities and acceleration. We consider ions
in the plasma are stationary in the time scale mentioned in
previous section.
3.4.2. Only electron motions are considered.

Various compositions of electric and magnetic fields are tried to
check the accuracy of the motions compared to analytic values.
For the hybrid element method code, some examples are already
presented in the literature [34, 85]. We here try various two dipole
cases to check the possibilities of adopting this code for this
study. The results of this validation are compared to analytic
solutions.
4.1 Particle-In-Cell Analysis
This PIC code uses the Lorentz force equation (2.1) to take the
information of the charged particle motions. We test three cases
with electric and magnetic fields to check the accuracy of the code
and compare the result to the analytic calculations.
4.1.1 Constant Magnetic Field
First, constant magnetic fields are tried for electron trajectories.

Electrons in constant magnetic fields have gyration motions with
7
Larmor radii. The electron trajectories are compared to

analytically calculated values. 100, 500, and 1550 G magnetic
fields are used for magnetic fields, and 1 and 10 eV for velocities.
From (2.16) the Lamor radius is proportional to the ratio of the
magnetic field and perpendicular speed.
4.1.2 .E X B Drifts
Now let us include electric fields in our analysis. Charged

particles have drift motions in crossed electric and magnetic
fields. This drift motion is called the EXB drift or the guiding
center drift. An electron is launched in the space with constant
magnetic and electric fields. The electron has zero initial velocity.
The electric fields considered in this case are 1 and 10 kV/m in +z
direction, and the same magnetic fields as in the previous case are
used in +y direction. From (2.22) the magnitude of the EXB drift
is the ratio of ~E to ~B, and the direction is perpendicular to both
of ~E and ~B. In this case, the drift has to have -vx direction, and
the electron can have only x and z components of velocity due to
the +y directional magnetic fields. The drift velocities of 100, 500,
and 1550 G magnetic field cases with 1 kV/m electric field will be
1×105, 2×104, 6.45×103 m/s, respectively, and those with 10
kV/m electric field will be 10 times bigger.
4.1.3 . Grad B Drifts

Last, the gradient of magnetic fields are considered. Charged
particles have drift motions in magnetic fields with gradient. This
draft is called the . B Drift,We launch an electron at the center of
the near exit plane region. There are constant magnetic and
electric fields in the channel. The electric field considered in this
case is 10 kV/m in +z direction. The same magnetic fields as
previous case ones are used as the maximum magnetic field.
7
4.2 Hybrid Moment Method
EMAP5 is a full-wave electromagnetic field solver that combines

the method of moments with a vector finite element method [25].
The FEM is employed to handle the interior domain of
inhomogeneous dielectric bodies. The method of moments is used
to develop surface integrals that relate the field quantities on
boundary surfaces with the equivalent surface currents. These
integral equations are then coupled to the finite element equations
through the continuity of the tangential magnetic fields [34].
EMAP5 allows only for the Cartesian coordinates. The code
validity of EMAP5 is already shown in many papers [2, 34, 39,
81, 85, 86]. Here, the validity of EMAP5 for this study is checked
with several cases.
4.2.1 Two Dipoles
The cyclotron motion of charged particles can be modeled with

two dipoles 90. out of phase. Two in phase dipoles make another
tilted dipole. Two sets of the code run are used for the case of 90.
phase difference.
4.2.2 Modified Length of Infinitesimal Dipoles
The radiation of an infinitesimal dipole is proportional to the

current on and the length of the dipole. The multiplication of the
current and length acts as a constant not only in the far field range
but also in the intermediate range. If it is possible to trade o_
between the amount of current on the dipole and the length of the
dipole, then we can reduce the number of elements and the
calculation time in this analysis with EMA.In satellite
communications, the space loss is about 200 dB. Assume that the
earth station transmitter and satellite receiver gains are 50 dB and
40 dB, respectively, and the transmitting power is 100 kW, 50
7
dBW, which are typical. The receiving signal power with these
condition is 1 Watt. The ECE radiation power is about 10% of
the receiving signal power, which is significant.Hz increases to
about 87 dB V/m with a strong peak. Radiation also now occurs
at frequencies from 2 GHz to 4 GHz. In the 1D case the maximum
frequency of the radiated field is 1.4 GHz. The increased
frequency range of the radiation is due to the magnetic field
density distribution. The 2D model has a higher magnetic field
density profile near the walls. The higher magnetic field causes
the radiation frequency range to broaden. Thus a more
sophisticated magnetic field analysis of the Hall thruster is
necessary to obtain the more accurate radiation frequency range.
7
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[77] Y. V. Esipchuk A. I. Morozov G. N. Tilinin and A. V.
Trofimov. Plasma
oscillations in closed-drift accelerators with an extended
acceleration zone.
Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys., 18(7):928–932, January 1974.
[78] W. H. Press S. A. Teukolsky W. T. Vetterling and B. P.
Flannery. Numerical
Recipes in C. Cambridge University press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
[79] D. F. Register L. Vuskovic and S. Trajmar. Elastic electron
scattering
8
cross section for xe in the 1-1000 eV impact energy region. J.

Phys. B:
At. Mol. Phys., 19:1685–1697, 1986.
[80] R. W. Wagenaar and F. J. de Heer. Total cross section for
electron
scattering from Ar, Kr and Xe. J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Phys.,
18:2021–
2036, 1985.
[81] M. Xu H. Wang and T. H. Hubing. Application of the cavity
model
to lossy power-return plane structures in printed circuit boards.
IEEE
Trans. Adv. Packag., 26(1):73–80, February 2003.
189
[82] G. D. Racca G. P. Whitcomb and B. H. Foing. The SMART-
1 mission.
ESA Bulletin, 95:72–81, August 1998.
[83] G. A. Hallock J. C. Wiley and E. A. Spencer. Development
and application
of the beamserver code for plume impact analysis on satellite
communication.
In 37th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference,
number AIAA 2001-3354, Salt Lake City, UT, July 2001.
[84] A. V. Oppenheim A. S. Willsky and S. Hamid. Signals and
Systems 2ed.
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cli_s, N.J., 1997.
[85] M. Xu and T. H. Hubing. The development of a closed-form
expression
for the input impedance of power-return plane structures. IEEE
Trans.
Electromagn. Compat., 45(3):478–485, August 2003.
[86] T. Hubing Y. Ji and H. Wang. Techniques for optimizing
FEM/MOM
codes. In Proc. 16th Annual Review of Progress in Applied
Computational
Electromagnetics, pages 444–451, Monterey, CA, March 2000.
8
[87] D. Manzella J. Yim and I. Boyd. Predicting Hall thruster

operational
lifetime. In 40th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion
Conference,
number AIAA 2004-3953, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 2004.
[88] X. Yuan. Three-dimensional electromagnetic scattering from
inhomogeneous
objects by the hybrid moment and finite element method. IEEE
Trans. on Microwave Theory and Tech., 38(4):1053–1058,
August 1990.
FIELD EMISSION CATHODES

Busek’s Field Emission Cathodes use in-house synthesized multi-
wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as field emission sites. Field
emission cathodes applied to electric propulsion (EP) as
neutralizers have one significant advantage over hollow cathodes:
they do not consume propellant. Hence they are ideal for low
power, low beam current EP such as colloid or FEEP thrusters as
well as space tether applications. Busek has developed the CNT
field emission cathode as a neutralizer for colloid thrusters that
will provide propulsion on the JPL, Space Technology
7/Disturbance Reduction System mission. In addition to space,
our rugged CNT cathodes have multiple terrestrial applications.
The CNT cathodes have an integrated extraction grid, forming a
complete package.
Cathode Constant-Current
Lifetime Tests
8
Current: Lifetime
0.1 mA: 13,236 hours
1.0 mA: 6,433 hours
CNT Field Emission Cathodes do not require an ultra high
vacuum (UHV) environment and can be operated in an oxygen
environment; UV light has a negligible effect on emission.
Standard half-inch cathode
T05 Package
Nominal half-inch design
Fully flight qualified for ST7-DRS
Mission Output current 1 mA
8
Design with standard TO5 package available
HALL EFFECT THRUSTER SYSTEMS
9
For over 12 years, Busek has been

developing the next generation of high performance electric
propulsion systems. Our family of U.S.-designed Hall Effect
thruster spans the power spectrum from 200 W to 20 kW and
produces 5 mN to 1 N of thrust with specific impulse values
varying between 1000 and 3000 seconds. Our designs embody
patent features, combined with precise control of the magnetic
field distribution and a short acceleration zone that result in
thrusters with high propulsive efficiency and high total impulse.
As part of Busek’s electric propulsion capability, the company

offers its customers complete and fully integrated propulsion
systems that include the Hall Effect thrusters, cathodes, power
9
processing and control units, and propellant management

components.
LOW POWER NOMINAL SPECIFICATIONS
BHT-200
Discharge Input Power: 200 W
Discharge Voltage: 250 V
Discharge Current: 800 mA
Propellant Mass Flowrate: 0.94 mg/sec
Thrust: 12.8 mN
Specific Impulse: 1390 sec
Propulsive Efficiency: 43.5 %
Performance and total impulse of the BHT-200 has been verified
at the Air Force Research Laboratory as part of the first successful
Phase II IHPRPT goal demonstration for space propulsion. The
BHT-200 system is fully qualified for satellite applications.
9
BHT-200
BHT-600
Discharge Current: 2.05 A
Thrust: 42 mN
The BHT-600 Hall Effect Thruster is an ideal size for primary
propulsion for small satellites. The BHT-600 operates efficiently
over a power range of 300-600 W and produce 15-48 mN of
thrust with a specific impulse of 1100-1700 seconds.
9
BHT-600
BHT-1000
Thrust: 58.5 mN
While optimized for operating at 1.0 kW, the BHT-1000 Hall
Effect Thruster employs refined magnetics allowing operation
over a specific impulse range of 1200-2800 seconds.
9
BHT-1000
HIGH POWER NOMINAL SPECIFICATIONS
BHT-1500
Thrust: 102 mN
While optimized for lifetime at 1.7 kW input power, the BHT-
1500 Hall Effect thruster is designed for operation over a 1.5-3.4
kW operating range. The BHT-1500 can also be configured to
operate in a dual mode; high thrust for orbit maneuvers or high
specific impulse for station keeping. The BHT-1500 produces 50-
9
250 mN of thrust over a specific impulse range of 1100-2800

seconds.
BHT-1500
BHT-8000
Discharge Input Power: 8 kW
Thrust: 512 mN
The BHT-8000 is an ideal size for orbit insertion and transfer of
large satellite assets. The BHT-8000 employs unique magnetic
features to optimize the specific impulse over a broad range and
maximize thrust to power. The BHT-8000 can operate efficiently
over specific impulse ranges from 1150 to 3000 seconds while
delivering a maximum of 0.08 N/kW thrust to power ratio.
9
BHT-8000
BHT-20K
Discharge Input Power: 20.25 kW
Thrust: 1.08 N
Propulsive Efficiency: 72 %
The largest Hall Effect thruster in the family is the BHT-20K, a
nominal 20 kW input power thruster. Under development by Air
Force sponsorship, the BHT-20K is designed to produce 1.0 N of
thrust at 2750 seconds specific impulse and 70% efficiency.
9
BHT-20K FACILITIES & TESTING

C A P A B I L I T I E S Busek provides an extensive test and
analysis capability to the government and the commercial
aerospace industry.
9
CAPABILITIES & SERVICES
Performance Measurement
Plume Studies
Qualification and Life Testing
Material Studies
Spacecraft Interaction
Alternate Propellants
SEM Analysis
Insulator Erosion Testing
Atomic Oxygen Material Studies
Xenon
9
Argon
Neon
Helium
TEST FACILITIES
Busek maintains two of the largest, privately owned propulsion
test facilities to provide the vacuum conditions necessary for
proper testing of Hall effect thrusters. Our cryogenic, high
pumping speed facilities are essential to providing representative
1
space environments for testing Hall thrusters. Our test facilities

are equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostics, performance
measuring and plume instrumentation that are used to optimize
Hall thruster designs. The facilities support esting of integrated or
component level systems and customer-sponsored testing.
Pumping Speed:
90,000 liters/sec for Xe
Up to 6.0 kW HET Power
Pumping Speed:
1
200,000 liters/sec for Xe

Up to 20 kW HET Power
THRUST STANDS
Busek custom-fabricates equipment for measuring the low levels
of thrust produced from various electric and micro propulsion
thrusters. For milli-Newton levels of thrust, Busek uses thrust
stands adapted from the industry standard NASA style design.
Our thrust stands provide real-time thrust measurement and
monitoring and in-situ calibration.
For micro-Newton levels of thrust necessary for precise

propulsion applications, Busek has developed both a torsional and
magnetically levitated thrust stand. The Maglev can test a
completely self-contained micro propulsion system (no power or
propellant tethers) up to 30 kg total mass. The demonstrated noise
of our micro propulsion thrust stands is less than 0.1 µN.
1
HOME PROPULSION MATERIALS FACILITIES

ABOUT CONTACT DOWNLOADS NEWS
A 2 kW Hall thruster in operation as part of the Hall Thruster

Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall thruster is a type of ion thruster in

which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall
thrusters trap electrons in a magnetic field and then use the
electrons to ionize propellant, efficiently accelerate the ions to
produce thrust, and neutralize the ions in the plume. Hall thrusters
are sometimes referred to as Hall Effect Thrusters or Hall Current
Thrusters.
Hall thrusters are able to accelerate their exhaust to speeds of

around 15–30 km/s, and can produce thrusts of about one newton.
1
Applications
The solar electric propulsion system of the European Space

Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft used a Hall thruster (Snecma PPS-
1350-G). Over the course of 13 months and 289 engine pulses it
had consumed about 58.8 kg of xenon and produced a delta-v of
2737 m/s (46.5 m/s per kg xenon).
Current research on Hall thrusters is ongoing and focuses mainly

on
1. Scaling the typically 1 kW Hall thruster to higher powers

(50 to 100 kW) and lower powers (50 to 100 W)
2. Resolving spacecraft integration issues regarding the
large plume divergence
3. Enabling operation at higher specific impulse and
variable specific impulse
4. Flight validating thrusters for use on western spacecraft
5. Extending the operational lifetimes to enable use on deep
space science missions
A Hall thruster typically operates at around 50–60% thrust

efficiency and provides specific impulse from 1,200 to
1,800 seconds (12 to 18 kN·s/kg), and thrust-to-power ratios of
50–70 mN/kW.
• Space Systems/Loral - Western Satellite Manufacturer

Offering SPT's
1
Views
The 30th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Florence,

Italy
September 17-20, 2007
1
Hall Thruster Electron Mobility Investigation using Full 3D
Monte Carlo Trajectory Simulations
IEPC-2007-291
Presented at the 30th International Electric Propulsion
Conference, Florence, Italy
Darren A. Alman,* Joshua L. Rovey,† Robert A. Stubbers,‡ and
Brian E. Jurczyk§
Starfire Industries LLC, Champaign, IL. 61820
Abstract: Axial electron transport represents a loss in efficiency
for crossed field devices, such as Hall-effect thrusters (HETs).
Previous experimental and computational investigations have
revealed an anomalous axial mobility that cannot be explained
with classical theory. This work describes the development of a
computational model that calculates electron mobility in HETs
using known electric and magnetic fields. Specifically, a full 3D
Monte Carlo trajectory simulation code is developed to simulate
HET internal electron dynamics. Simulations were completed
using the AFRL/University of Michigan P5 HET. The magnetic
field for this thruster is known from magneto static simulations
and the electric field present during thruster operation has been
experimentally measured by Haas. Comparison of the axial
mobility from our code and the mobility calculated by Koo for the
P5 shows agreement.
Nomenclature
B = magnetic field vector

E = electric field vector
1
r = radial coordinate, with zero being the thruster centerline

v = electron velocity vector
z = axial coordinate, with zero being the anode location
µ = electron mobility
I. Introduction
HALL-EFFECT thrusters (HETs) are a type of space propulsion
device that use electric fields to accelerate and
expel ionized propellant to generate thrust. A schematic of an
HET is shown in Figure 1. A HET is a coaxial
device that utilizes a radial magnetic field crossed with an axial
electric field. Electrons emitted by the cathode drift in the E×B
direction, forming an azimuthal Hall current. Neutral xenon atoms
injected through the anode collide with these electrons producing
xenon ions that are subsequently accelerated by the electric field
to produce thrust. The magnitude of the magnetic field is designed
such that only the electrons are magnetized. A mixture of
electrons and ions in the acceleration zone creates a quasi-neutral
plasma and thus the operation of the HET is not space charge
limited in ion current density as is the case with girded ion
thrusters.
* Research Engineer, 60 Hazelwood Drive, Suite 143/203A,
AIAA Member.
† Propulsion Research Engineer, 60 Hazelwood Drive, Suite
143/203A, AIAA Member.
‡ Vice President, 60 Hazelwood Drive, Suite 143/203A, AIAA
Member.
§ President, 60 Hazelwood Drive, Suite 143/203A, AIAA
Member.
H
Italy
2
Transverse electron mobility represents a loss in efficiency of the
device, so ideally electrons would be confined to drift in the Hall
current indefinitely. Unfortunately this is not realizable in practice
1
and electrons do migrate to the anode. Furthermore, axial mobility

can not be characterized by a purely classical collisional diffusion
model. In fact, experimental measurements in the SPT-100 have
shown that the electron collision frequency is on the order of 107-
108 Hz.3 Calculations from both internal and global
measurements have shown that the collision frequency based off
classical theory is 1,000 times lower.4 Because of this
discrepancy, the term “anomalous” mobility has been used to
describe the increased axial mobility present in cross-field devices
such as HETs.5 Explanations of the “anomalous” mobility have
been suggested and two main candidates are plasma turbulence4,6
and wall-effects.7-9 More efficient HETs that better confine Hall
current electrons may be possible if a clearer understanding of the
mobility in these devices is developed. With this in mind, Starfire
Industries LLC is using both numerical modeling and experiment
to investigate and study mobility in HETs.
II. Full 3D Monte Carlo Trajectory Simulations
Star fire Industries has developed a 3D Monte Carlo trajectory

simulation code to investigate electron transport in HETs. The
simulations are carried out by rigorously simulating the electron
trajectory over a series of very small time steps, ~10-13 seconds.
The forces on the electron due to magnetic and electric fields are
calculated at each time step and the particle is moved and its
velocity is adjusted. The possibility of a collision occurring is
checked at a somewhat larger interval (because the probability
over one .t is extremely low), and if necessary the electron’s
velocity (energy and direction) is modified according to the
tabulated collision data. If the electron leaves the simulation
volume it either collides with a wall, and is handled appropriately,
or escapes and finishes its flight depending on the properties of
the wall object that it strikes. Tallies of desired properties are
output to data files both periodically throughout the run and at the
completion of all electron flights. Data for each individual
electron history (coordinates, velocities, local properties, forces,
collision probabilities, etc.) can be saved after each flight. Due to
1
the abundance of data collected, much can be learned from the

simulations and most of the interesting properties or occurrences
can be studied in detail after the simulations are completed. Three
electron-neutral collisions with xenon are sampled - elastic
scattering, excitation, and ionization. Data on electron collision
cross sections were taken from the literature10 and the Evaluated
Electron Data Library11 from Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. The values used by the code for elastic scattering over
one example electron flight are shown in Figure 2.
Again, elastic collisions play a dominant role in the electron
transport process since the scattering of the Hall drifting electrons
results in a change in electron direction and subsequent orbit-
center motion along the z-axis. Wall collisions are treated with a
varying level of detail, with initial simulations simply returning
the incident electron back into the thruster channel with a cosine
angular distribution and a Maxwellian energy distribution
sampled from the wall temperature. This simplified wall treatment
can be expanded to account for improved energy of incidence,
angle of incidence, and surface roughness effects to potentially
improve code accuracy. Figure 2. Electron elastic scattering cross
section values used in the Monte Carlo code during one electron
flight

Italy
To get good statistics, typically tens or hundreds of thousands of
electron flights are run for a given set of conditions. Electrons
start with a Maxwellian energy distribution with a low initial
temperature and a random direction in three dimensions. Electrons
were simulated for up to one to ten microseconds (user definable)
or until they reach the anode, whichever comes first. A time limit
must exist, because some electrons were found to be very well
trapped, and these flights would otherwise never come to a
conclusion. The trade-off is between increased accuracy and
simulation time requirements.
1

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4
III. Simulation Results for the P5 Hall thruster
Simulations using the code described above were performed on
the AFRL/University Michigan P5 HET. A calculated magnetic
field and experimental measurements of the electric potential1,2
were used as input to the code. The geometry of the simulation
and a contour plot of the electric potential and magnetic field are
shown in Figure 3. In this and subsequent plots, the x-axis and z-
axis are the thruster radial and axial dimensions, respectively. A
small, greatly magnified portion of a single electron trajectory,
output from the Monte Carlo code, is shown in Figure 4b. The
electron displays the traditional orbit in crossed electric and
magnetic fields. Of course, the electrons do not always perfectly
follow such an archetypical Hall orbit. There are many forces that
tend to complicate the electron path, including slight variations in
electric and magnetic field directions, varying strengths of these
fields, and collisions with the background gas. An example of the
latter is given in Figure 4c, where the electron has a collision,
changes direction, and is forced by the fields to resume the Hall
drift. Any additional velocity that the electron keeps beyond what
the Hall drift requires results in extra features in the trajectory, for
example, an extra loop at the top of the orbit like that shown in
such as spatial and velocity history throughout the thruster
computational domain. . Total time that electrons spent at each
(r,z) location, totaled over 10,000 flights.

Italy
5
The most important output for investigating
the electron mobility is the average velocity that
electrons have at each (r, z) location because
velocity is directly related to electron mobility.
1
However, there are small pockets of axial velocity directed

downstream away from the anode, due to variations in the
magnetic field direction ,etc. The average velocities toward the
anode are largest in the low-magnetic field region near the anode,
and to a lesser extent downstream of the thruster exit plane.
Average axial velocities are low in the high-field acceleration
region of the thruster. From these calculated velocities and the
electric field in each cell, the electron mobility can be calculated
in each cell. The mobility and velocity are related through E v µ =
, where v is the velocity vector, µ is the electron mobility, and E is
the electric field vector. This relationship becomes somewhat
more complicated in the case of crossed electric and magnetic
fields, where an electric field in one direction can lead to a
velocity in a perpendicular direction (e.g.; an axial electric field
giving rise to an azimuthal electron velocity and Hall current). In
this case the mobility is a tensor. The Monte Carlo electron
transport code calculates the full 3D electron mobility tensors for
a given thruster and set of initial conditions. For comparison
purposes however, these detailed tensor mobilities were collapsed
into an effective 1D axial mobility, as shown in Figure 7. These
results can be compared to the best fit mobility to experimental
data that was previously plotted by Koo,12-14. There is
agreement between the shape of the code output and the previous
fit to experiment, indicating that the major relevant physics are
indeed included in the simulations. In both cases, the axial
mobility is highest near the anode, drops to a minimum further
downstream toward the high-magnetic field region of the thruster,
and then rises again as you move beyond the exit plane – but not
to the near-anode levels.
A full 3D Monte Carlo trajectory simulation code has been

developed to simulate HET internal electron dynamics. Electron
transport is important to thruster performance, because electron
current reaching the anode represents a loss in efficiency.
Previous experimental and computational investigations have
revealed an anomalous axial mobility that cannot be explained
1
with classical theory. This makes predictive modeling of HETs

difficult because the electron mobility values are not known
without performing measurements on existing hardware. The goal
of the transport code is to enable calculation of the mobility
directly from the knowledge of electric and magnetic fields.
Simulations were completed using data from the
AFRL/University of Michigan P5 HET. The magnetic field for
this thruster is known from magnetostatic simulations and the
electric field present during thruster operation has been
experimentally measured by Haas. Key outputs from the Monte
Carlo code include information on where electrons spend their
time, and how they move throughout the thruster. The latter
output, the average velocity of electrons versus position in the
thruster, allows calculation of the full 3D electron mobility tensor.

Italy
6
Mobility can be defined that takes the mobility tensor and
expresses it in terms of axial velocity and axial electric field.
Comparison of the 1D axial mobility from our code and the
mobility calculated by Koo for the P5 shows agreement,
indicating that the transport code is correctly simulating the major
relevant physics. Improvements to the model can be made, e.g. in
the level of detail for wall interactions. The code can be used to
calculate electron mobilities for known fields, without the need
for experimental measurements of mobility from each thruster and
set of conditions. This represents a major improvement to Hall
thruster modeling, allowing predictive modeling to be performed.
References
1Haas, J. M., "Low-Perturbation Interrogation of the Internal and
Near-field Plasma Structure of a Hall thruster using a High-
Speed Probe Positioning System," Doctoral Thesis, Dept. of
Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI,
2001.
1
2Haas, J. M., Gallimore, A. D., "Internal Plasma Potential profiles

in a Laboratory-model Hall thruster," Physics of Plasmas,
Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 652-660, February 2001.
3Ahedo, E., Gallardo, J. M., Martinez-Sanchez, M., "Effects of
the radial plasma-wall interaction on the Hall thruster
discharge," Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 10, No. 8, pp. 3397-3409,
2003.
4Meezan, N. B., Hargus, W. A., Cappelli, M. A., "Anomalous
electron mobility in a coaxial Hall discharge plasma," Physical
Review E, Vol. 63, No. 2, Feb. 2001.
5Janes, G. S., Lowder, R. S., "Anomalous Electron Diffusion and
Ion Acceleration in a Low-Density Plasma," Physics of
Fluids, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 1115-1123, June 1966.
6Knoll, A., Thomas, C., Gascon, N., Cappelli, M., "Experimental
Investigation of High-Frequency Oscillations within Hall
Thrusters," AIAA-2006-5171, 42nd Joint Propulsion Conference,
Sacramento, CA, July 9-12, 2006.
7Keidar, M., Beilis, I. I., "Electron Transport Phenomena in
Plasma Devices with ExB Drift," IEEE Transactions on Plasma
Science, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 804-814, June 2006.
8Raitses, Y., Staack, D., Keidar, M., Fisch, N. J., "Electron-wall
interaction in Hall thrusters," Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12,
No. 5, May 2005.
9Raitses, Y., Smirnov, A., Staack, D., Fisch, N. J.,
"Measurements of secondary electron emission effects in the Hall
thruster
discharge," Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 2006.
10Date, H., Ishimaru, Y., Shimozuma, M., "Electron collision
processes in gaseous xenon," Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys.
Res. B, Vol. 207, No. 4, pp. 373-380, August 2003.
11Perkins, S. T., Cullen, D. E., Seltzer, S. M., "Tables and Graphs
of Electron-Interaction Cross Sections from 10 eV to 100
GeV Derived from the LLNL Evaluated Electron Data Library
(EEDL)," UCRL-50400, LLNL, Livermore, CA, November 1991.
12Koo, J. W., "Hybrid PIC-MCC Computational Modeling of
Hall Thrusters," Doctoral Thesis, Dept. of Aerospace
Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2005.
1
13Boyd, I. D., "Modeling a Hall Thruster from Anode to Plume

Far Field," Air Force Office of Scientific Research: Space
Propulsion and Power Contractors Meeting, Annapolis, MD.,
Sept. 25-29, 2006.
14Koo, J. W., Boyd, I. D., "Modeling of anomalous electron
mobility in Hall thrusters," Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, No. 3,
March 2006.
Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) is an electromagnetic propulsion

device. It uses the electrical energy of a capacitor to form a high
current arc discharge across a solid propellant surface (typically
Te.on). The energy of the arc ablates the surface of the propellant
creating an ionized gas. This ionized gas is accelerated out of the
channel at high velocities by electromagnetic forces creating
thrust. The electromagnetic force is called the Lorentz force,
which describes the interaction between the current vector and the
self induced magnetic .eld vector of the arc discharge. A PPT is a
pulsed device that is capable of very precise impulse bits. This
capability allows for low jitter precision maneuvers of small
satellites that can not be match by traditional ACS systems. Busek
began commercial development of a micro version of a PPT in
2002 based on technology originally developed at AFRL. A 3-
axis version of the MicroPPT (µPPT) is lying on the US Air Force
Academy’s FalconSat-3 mission under the acronym MPACS.
MPACS stands for Micro Propulsion Attitude Control System.
Four clusters of MPACS thrusters will be .own for propulsive
ACS demonstration. Each cluster is a stand-alone unit containing
all necessary electronics, requiring only power and commands
from the spacecraft.
The Leading Source
Micro Pulsed Plasma
Thrusters (µPPTs)
MPACS Performance
Discharge Energy 1.96 Joules
Impulse Bit (avg) 80 µN-sec
Speci.c Impulse (avg) 827 sec
Propellant Consumption 19.7 µg/pulse
1
Ef.ciency (avg) 16 %
Speci.c Thrust (avg) 40.8 µN/W
Plasma Thrust
Spark Plug
Teflon Fuel Bar
Electrodes
Capacitor
Spacecraft
Bus PPU
Spring
B
Fuel Retainer
BUSEK
SPACEPROPULSION
Four MPACS are lying on
FalconSat-3, launched
February 2007.
The Busek micro propulsion effort spans several technologies and
capabilities intended for a variety of missions. The thrusters in
various stages of development include:
1) 0.01 mN class colloid thrusters suitable for low thrust noise
(<0.0001 mN) and highly accurate (~10 nm) satellite position
control for interferometeric missions such as LISA (Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna). First demonstration of these
thrusters will be on the JPL New Millennium, Space Technology
7 mission called DRS which will .y on ESA spacecraft.
2) 0.01 to 1 mN-sec class microPPTs suitable for low deltaV
nanosat missions or for ACS on larger satellites. The .rst of this
class µPPTs will .y on the U.S. Air Force Academy satellite
FalconSat3.
3) 5 mN class micro-resistojets for nanosats (<100 kg) with
limited power on board (<20 W) and low deltaV (~100 m/sec)
missions. The resistojet uses ammonia or methanol as propellant.
Methanol is a green propellant that achieves nearly the same
performance as ammonia. Both are a far less toxic alternative to
hydrazine.
1
4) 1 mN class RF Ion thrusters intended for accurate position

control required by IR interferometeric missions such as the
Terrestrial Planet Finder. The RF thruster eliminates the internal
discharge cathode and the neutralizer and allows broad
adjustability/wide dynamic range of thrust. These features make
this thruster ideal for multiple satellite coordinated formation
lying missions.
5) 0.1 to 1 mN class simpli.ed colloid thrusters intended for
missions
with less demanding position accuracy. This class of micro
thrusters is also ideal for drag make-up or coordinated formation
.ying of multiple satellites.
Micropropulsion
Across Technologies
The Leading Source
BUSEK
SPACEPROPULSION
Challenges
Hall Thruster Channel Wall Erosion
Overview
The main life-limiting factor for Hall thrusters is the erosion of

the channel walls. As Hall thrusters are beginning to be used on
more extended missions (10000 hours+), lifetime issues become a
priority. Characterizing this erosion experimentally in ground
based vacuum chambers is prohibitively long and expensive. Thus
there is a need for quick and cheap, yet accurate, simulations and
this is the main motivation behind this research.
1
Modeling the erosion rates along the channel walls incorporates

two major parts. First, the ion current to the walls needs to be
determined. Then the sputter yields need to be found in order to
obtain the erosion rates. Two ion flux models are examined. One
is based on scattering collisions while the other focuses more on a
hydrodynamic description of the plasma. The sputter yields are
obtained from an empirical model based on curve fits to
experimental data.
Models
Scattering collisions model
Experimental data of the total volumetric erosion rate of the SPT-

100 as a function of time is shown below. There is a rapid
decrease in the erosion early on, but levels off after about 1000
hours. Explanations have ranged from a two-mechanism process
to a logarithmic one. A possible physical underpinning behind a
logarithmic decrease in the erosion rate may be explained by
scattering collisions as the channel width increases due to erosion.
The scattering collisions model assumes that most of the ion flux
to the walls is due to collisions of the ions with the neutral atoms
in the channel. The ions are diverted from their trajectory and
possibly into the walls.
Hydrodynamic model
The hydrodyanmic model uses a fluid description of the plasma to

calculate the ion flux to the walls. The ion continuity and
momentum equations are solved in an iterative manner. The
electron momentum and energy equations are also solved to
determine the electron temperature and the components of the
1
electric field. The neutral flow is modeled as one-dimensional

with a constant axial velocity.
The near-wall processes are also modeled, as they are important in

determining the erosion rates. The boundary conditions are set by
those on the edge of the plasma sheath. The Bohm condition is not
assumed a priori, but rather, a smooth presheath-sheath matching
technique is applied to find the electric field and entrance velocity
at the sheath edge. The effects of secondary electron emission are
also included. This affects, among other things, the potential drop
across the sheath, which in turn influences the ion impact
parameters and thus the erosion rate.
Sputtering model
The above ion flux models are coupled with a sputtering model to
calculate the erosion rates. Sputter yields are primarily a function
of wall material, ion species, angle of incidence, and ion energy.
We have used experimental data of xenon ions striking boron
nitride samples at various angles and energies [1]. For our
purposes, we have applied a curve fit to model the sputter yield
for xenon ions on boron nitride.
1
Results
The results using the scattering model are shown below. Overall,
the model shows fairly good comparison with the experimental
data [2].
1
The hydrodynamic model results are shown below. Again the

model compares fairly well to the data. However, there are some
deficiencies, such as underpredicted erosion in the later stages of
thruster life. The erosion at the exit plane (figure on the far right
below), however, matches quite well with experimental data [2,3].
1
Since this is usually the location of greatest erosion, and thus the
location under most concern, the results are promising.
1
Overall, the two models here show fairly good comparison with
existing experimental data. The models are also computationally
inexpensive, running on the order of minutes, making them
attractive for future design and prediction purposes. However,
there remains much work to be done in improving the models,
making sure they capture all of the necessary physics and are
applicable over a variety of thruster types and operating
conditions.
1
References
1. Garnier, Y., Viel, V., Roussel, J.-F., and Bernard, J., "Low-
Energy Xenon Ion Sputtering of Ceramics Investigated for
Stationary Plasma Thrusters," Journal of Vacuum Science and
Technology A, Vol. 17, No. 6, Nov/Dec 1999, pp. 3246-3254.
2. Absalamov, S. K., et al., "Measurement of Plasma Parameters

in the Stationary Plasma Thruster (SPT-100) Plume and Its Effect
on Spacecraft Components," 28th AIAA/SAE/ASME/ASEE Joint
Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 1992, AIAA-92-3156.
3. Garner, C. E., Brophy, J. R., Polk, J. E., and Pless, L. C.,

"Cyclic Endurance Test of a SPT-100 Stationary Plasma
Thruster," 30th AIAA/SAE/ASME/ASEE Joint Propulsion
Conference and Exhibit, 1994, AIAA-94-2856.
Recent Publications
• Yim, J. T., Keidar, M., and Boyd, I. D. An Investigation

of Factors Involved in Hall Thruster Wall Erosion
Modeling AIAA-2006-4657, Presented at the 42nd
AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference,
July 2006, Sacramento, CA.
• Yim, J. T., Keidar, M., and Boyd, I. D. A
Hydrodynamic-Based Erosion Model for Hall Thrusters
IEPC-2005-013, Presented at the 29th International
Electric Propulsion Conference, October 2005,
Princeton, NJ.
• Yim, J. T., Keidar, M., and Boyd, I. D. An Evaluation of
Sources of Erosion in Hall Thrusters. AIAA-2005-3530,
Presented at the 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint
Propulsion Conference, July 2005, Tucson, AZ.
1
Future applications
Hypersonics
NASA's new vision for space exploration aims to take humans

back to the Moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond. Achieving
this goal will involve many missions over the coming years.
Perhaps the most dangerous and challenging aspect of any
mission is a spacecraft's hypersonic entry into a planet's
atmosphere. The physical processes occurring around the
spacecraft are quite complex and involve the synthesis of
chemical kinetics, quantum mechanics, radiation physics, and
ablation effects with fluid dynamics. To further complicate
matters, the atmosphere is often rarefied and conventional fluid
dynamic analysis is no longer applicable. Such high energy, high
speed, rarefied conditions are very expensive and often impossible
to reproduce in wind tunnels here on Earth. Actual flight tests are
even more expensive and measured data is limited to that
collected during the 1960's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo
programs. If numerical simulation can reproduce the experimental
data that is available, it can then be used with confidence as a fast
and inexpensive design tool for new spacecraft flying new
missions.
At low altitudes (below ~80km for Earth) the atmosphere is

sufficiently dense such that molecules undergo a vast number of
collisions as they move over the spacecraft. Under these
conditions the gas can accurately be assumed to behave as a
continuum and the Navier-Stokes equations can be solved using
methods from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). CFD
methods are very mature and are capable of incorporating
advanced physical models such as chemical and thermal non-
1
equilibrium, radiation, and even ablation. For very high altitudes

(above ~100km for Earth) the atmosphere is rarefied to the point
where molecules undergo far fewer collisions invalidating the
continuum assumptions inherent in the Navier-Stokes equations.
In this regime the most mature numerical method is the direct
simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method which is also capable of
incorporating advanced physical models. Since the DSMC
method simulates the gas on the molecular scale it provides
accurate results in all regimes, however under continuum
conditions, large numbers of particles and collisions demand
impractical computational resources. Thus, in general, the DSMC
method is used to simulate atmospheric entry at high altitudes and
CFD is used at lower altitudes. Of course there is a large overlap
regime in which the flow around the spacecraft exhibits regions of
both continuum flow and non-equilibrium or rarefied flow. For
this reason current research is not only focused on using CFD and
DSMC to simulate the aerothermodynamics of atmospheric entry,
but also focuses on incorporating these methods into a hybrid
particle-continuum code.
• Current Work
o Particle Simulations of Continuum/Rarefied
Flows
o Development of a Hybrid Particle-Continuum
Method
o Plasma-Based Flow Control at Hypersonic
Speeds
o ReEntry and Hypersonic Vehicle Plasma
Communications System
Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Modeling of Weakly Ionized

Flows
1
Efficiency Analysis of a Low Discharge Voltage Hall

Thruster was done by Jerry L. Ross,Jason D. Sommerville ,
Lyon B. King on power loss mechanisms for a 2 kW (nominal)
Hall thruster operating at low discharge voltages were examined
through thrust stand measurements and probe studies. Operating
conditions included discharge voltages ranging from 100 V to 300
V and mass flow rates of 3 to 5 mg/s of xenon. Thrust stand
measurements indicate a minimum thrust efficiency of 15% at 100
V at 3 mg/s and a maximum of 59% at 300 V and 5 mg/s.
Retarding potential analyzer, emissive and Faraday probes were
utilized to quantify multiple sources of inefficiency. The ratio of
exhausted ion current to discharge current was found to be the
dominant loss mechanism at low discharge voltage.
Nomenclature
T= trip time, s
!V= velocity increment, m/s2
Ÿ= m flow rate of propellant as determined by the mass flow
controller, kg/s
e =elementary charge, C
fi =ionization mass fraction of the propellant
Id =discharge current, A
Ii =exhausted ion current, A
Isp= specific impulse, s
j(!) =ion current density, A/m2
M =spacecraft mass, kg
m =mass of a xenon atom/ion, kg
P =kinetic power delivered to the spacecraft, W
Ps =supply output power IdVd, W
Q =average charge state of the ionized propellant
q =charge number
T =thrust, N
Ue =ion velocity, m/s2
Vd =discharge voltage (anode potential), V
Vaccel= acceleration potential for a given ion, V
Symbols
1
" average o"-axis ion trajectory angle

"B =beam divergence as an efficiency
"c =current efficiency
"probe the product of all probe-measured efficiencies
"E= energy efficiency
"p =propellant efficiency
"T =thrust efficiency
"vdf= velocity distribution efficiency
"v =voltage utilization efficiency
"ctg= cathode to ground potential, V
"plasma plasma to ground potential, V
# angle from thruster axis
I. Introduction
The Hall thruster belongs to a class of electric propulsion that uses
electric and magnetic fields to ionize and accelerate propellant.
Electric spacecraft thrusters, such as the Hall thruster, can greatly
decrease the propellant mass required to perform a desired
mission #V because of their high exhaust velocities.1 However,
because the power available on spacecraft is limited to, at present,
tens of kW, electric propulsion (EP) devices are limited in thrust
to hundreds of mN. This implies that, while EP can save
propellant mass, it is sometimes accompanied by increased trip
time for near-Earth missions. The trip time is related to the
required velocity change, spacecraft mass, and thrust by
#t = M#V
T
. (1)
The spacecraft mass, M, and mission #V are fixed quantities and
hence, when the trip time is of greatest concern, a high-thrust
device is required.
For an electric thruster, the relation between thrust, power, and
specific impulse can be expressed
as
T=
2"TPs
Ue
1
(2)
While greater thrust can be obtained by increasing Ps, spacecraft
power is limited by the on-board
energy source and greater spacecraft power comes at the price of
increased vehicle mass. To increase
the thrust at fixed power, Ue must be decreased while maintaining
a high level of "T . The exit
velocity of the ionized propellant relates to the accelerating
potential according to
1
2mU2
e = qVaccel. (3)
The acceleration potential, through which the ions fall, is
approximately the discharge potential (Vaccel ! Vd). Therefore,
the discharge voltage (nominally 300-500 V for a Hall thruster)
must be reduced to reduce the exit velocity.
The difficulty of high thrust-to-power operation is maintaining

high levels of thrust efficiency when the propellant mass flow rate
increases and the discharge voltage decreases. Under high thrust-
to-power operation, desired power levels are in excess of 1 kW.
Most of the research in the field of low voltage Hall thrusters,
however, focuses on reduced power operation (low voltage and
low current). For example, space qualified Hall thrusters, such as
the Busek BHT-200, operate at relatively low voltages (250 V)
but nominally at 200 Wa. Alta created the XHT-100 Hall thruster
at American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics by scaling
their 1 kW thruster to design the main propulsion system for a
micro or mini-satellite that operates nominally at 180 V and 100
W but with only 22% efficiency.2 The Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation (MELCO) reported performance results on their 200
mN-class Hall thruster of !30% total thrust efficiency at !200 V
and !1 kW.3 In 2005 TsNIIMASH reported ! 45% efficiency for a
TAL thruster operating at 200 V and 3.5 mg/s flow of xenon.
They further demonstrated that the power and thrust can be
linearly scaled with thruster arrays or clusters.4 Clusters,
however, add mass and complexity to the system that could be
1
alleviated by a single thruster with identical capabilities.

Literature is sparse for high powered Hall thrusters operating at
low anode voltages (voltages < 200 V and currents > 3 A). It is
known that Hall thrusters do not perform well in this regime,
however, the physics of the inefficiency and instability are
unknown. In 2003, Manzella experimented on the NASA-120M
and NASA-457M Hall thrusters and identified voltage utilization
efficiency as the leading loss mechanism of low voltage
operation. The devices in the aforementioned study were operated
as low as 100 V on the anode at < 25% efficiency.5 Ashkenazy’s
work found limited improvements by extending the discharge
chamber channel length.6 These improvements, however, were
only reported at low power operation. Research in alternative
propellants such as bismuth has been shown to lower the cost of
ionization, a power loss aggravated at low discharge voltages.7, 8
Additionally, as a heavier atom than xenon, bismuth would also
decrease the exit velocity for a given discharge voltage according
to Eq. 3. Performance data for bismuth Hall thrusters, however,
are not yet available. Using alternative propellants will benefit
high thrust-to-power operation but it does not address the physics
inhibiting high efficiency. This is a parametric study of an Aerojet
BPT-2000 Hall thruster operated at low voltages. By
implementing a variety of thrust stand and probe studies the goal
of this work was to better understand the underlying physics and
diagnose as many loss mechanisms as possible. The probe study
includes Faraday, emissive and retarding potential analyzer (RPA)
probes to diagnose beam divergence, current efficiency, and
voltage utilization efficiency.
II. Apparatus
All measurements were taken on an Aerojet BPT-2000 Hall

thruster designed to operate nominally
between 300 V and 500 V.9 The xenon testing facility is a 2-m
diameter and 4-m long vacuum
chamber, where the thruster is mounted at the radial center 1 m
from the end of the tank (see
1
figure 1). Rough vacuum is reached by a 400-cfm two-stage

rotary oil-sealed pump. High vacuum
is reached and maintained by two 48-inch cryopumps that operate
at 120,000 L/s (N2). Chamber
base pressure was 1 O 10-6 Torr and the pressure did not exceed 4
O 10-5 Torr (corrected for xenon)
during thruster operation. Thrust measurements were taken by the
use of an inverted-pendulum
thrust stand.10 The thrust stand is water cooled to alleviate
thermal drifts and its level is monitored
by a tilt sensor accurate to one half an arc second. Anode and
cathode propellant lines are
controlled by thermal mass flow controllers. The thrust stand was
calibrated before each change in
mass flow rate. At each operating condition the magnets were
adjusted to obtain the maximum
thrust efficiency as calculated by thrust stand diagnostics. A
laboratory-grade LaB6 cathode was
used for testing at a constant flow of 0.3 mg/s xenon. All
efficiency values, both referenced and
presented, exclude cathode flow and heater power.
Plume diagnostics were taken by three probes mounted on a three-
axis motion table (rotational
stage mounted upon two perpendicular linear slides. The Hall
thruster was rigidly mounted in the
tank (not on the thrust stand) for this portion of the tests and the
probes were swept through the
plume by the motion table.
Voltage utilization e!ciencies were obtained by a 4-grid RPA
probe placed 0.55 m downstream
3 of 15
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
..
...........
Figure 1. A top down view of the inside of the xenon Hall thruster
testing facility
1
from the thruster faceplate at 0", 15", and 30" to the thruster
centerline. The RPA probe uses
a series of biased grids to repel ions of low energy. Sweeping the
retarding potential on the grids
yields an ion energy-per-charge distribution of the plume of the
Hall thruster. The RPA grid wires
are 0.114 mm in diameter with 0.140 mm spacing resulting in a
30% open area. Each grid is 0.254
cm from each other with the exception of the front floating grid
which is 0.508 cm from the first
electron repeller. The outer diameter of the grids is 1.235 cm and
the outer diameter of the body
of the probe is 3.170 cm. The electron repellers were biased 15 V
below cathode. The ion repeller
grid was swept from 0 V to 450 V for each trace. The current
collected by the probe was then
passed through a current amplifier and recorded by an
oscilloscope. The anode and RPA were both
referenced to cathode during data acquisition. In calculating the
voltage utilization efficiency the
repelling voltages were adjusted to be relative to ground potential
and to account for the plasma
potential.
Faraday probe sweeps yield ion current density measurements.
Current density as a function of
o$-axis angle can then be used to compute beam divergence. The
Faraday probe is enclosed in an
alumina sheath with an outer diameter of 4.75 mm. A steel guard
ring with a diameter of 10 mm
was included to reduce edge e$ects on the potential structure in
front of the probe face. The gap
between the the guard ring and collector face is 1.25 mm. Probe
data were taken at 25 cm radius
from the front plate of the thruster through a half-angle of 53"
with an angular resolution of 2".
Plasma potentials were recorded by an emissive probe constructed
from a 1.27 O 10-4 mm
1
diameter thoriated tungsten wire encased in an alumina sheath and

referenced to cathode potential.
The potentials were recorded at 0", 15", and 30" 0.55 m
downstream from thruster centerline (same
as the RPA probe). Plasma potentials were extracted from the
emissive probe traces using the
intersection method discussed by Kemp11 in 1965 and first
introduced by Langmuir in 1923.
III. Efficiency Analysis
There are various loss mechanisms that degrade Hall thruster
operation. As we will show,
reducing the discharge voltage further aggravates many of these
ine!ciencies. Measurements from
the thrust stand, mass-flow controllers, and discharge power
supplies can be combined in real-time
4 of 15
to produce thrust efficiency
"T = T2
2 ÿ mPs
. (4)
Thrust efficiency is a measure of the discharge power conversion
into net thrust of the system. A
recast of the thrust efficiency equation breaks it into the product
of energy efficiency, the measure
of total energy in the ion beam, and propellant efficiency, the
measure of the velocity distribution
function and beam divergence efficiency.12
"T =
1
2 ÿ m"V#2
Ps
= "V#2
"V2#
1
2 ÿ m"V2#
Ps
1
= "p"E (5)
Energy efficiency can further be separated into voltage utilization
efficiency and current efficiency
where the voltage utilization efficiency is the percentage of the
anode-cathode potential that the
ions are accelerated through and the current efficiency is the ratio
of exhausted current to discharge
current. Voltage utilization efficiency is expressed as
"v =
1
2m"V2#
eVd
1
fiQ
(6)
where 1
2m"V2# = "!ion# and current efficiency is
"c =
ÿ me
mId
(fiQ) = Ii
Id
(7)
where Q equals
Q=
1
fi !f1 + 2f2 + 3f3".
The variable fi is the ionization mass fraction of the propellant
fi = f1 + f2 + f3...
f0 + fi = 1
where f0, f1, f2, f3 are the exit mass fractions of Xe, Xe+, Xe2+,
Xe3+. Thus, thrust efficiency is
the product of propellant, voltage utilization and current
e!ciencies
"T = "v"c"p. (8)
Voltage utilization efficiency can be measured with an RPA probe
and the current efficiency can
1
be obtained with Faraday probe data. An in depth derivation of

equations 6 and 7 can be found
in Larson’s work.12
The propellant efficiency is the product of the velocity
distribution efficiency and the beam
divergence efficiency13
"p = "|V |#2
"|V |2#"cos $#2 = "vdf "B (9)
where $ is the current-weighted average o$-axis ion trajectory
angle as determined by the Faraday
probe, defined later in Eq. 11. The velocity distribution function
can be measured with an ExB
probe.
Finally, we can recast the thrust efficiency equation as the product
of all four loss mechanisms
"T = "v"c"vdf "B. (10)
The term Thrust Efficiency has been used by Kim1 but also
appears under the name anode e!-
ciency14 and discharge efficiency5 and refers to a benchmark for
anode performance that excludes
the magnets and cathode operation.
5 of 15
IV. Results
A. Thrust Stand
Figure 2 shows the thruster operated at above 50% thrust
efficiency for all three mass flow rates
at 300 V. The data here is comparable with the data from
reference 9 after the cathode operation
is accounted for.b The discharge supply was current limited to 6
A eliminating the possibility of
testing data for 4 mg/s discharge voltages below 140 V and below
180 V for 5 mg/s. At Vd = 100
V, maximum thrust efficiency was 15% for 3 mg/s.
T
Figure 2. Thrust efficiency as determined by thrust measurements.
Error bars are calculated based
1
on the reproducibility of calibration measurements both during

operation and when the thruster is
turned o".
The discharge current is the current that accumulates at the anode
from ionization, secondary
electron emission, and “recycled” electrons originating from the
cathode. The discharge current is
plotted against the discharge voltage in Figure 3. The current
levels were nearly constant for each
mass flow rate until the discharge voltage dropped below 200 V
where the current increased rapidly;
again, this increase in current is the result of the magnetic field
being optimized for maximum "T .
Figure 3. Discharge current at max !T . Uncertainty is ±0.05 A
based on manufacturer’s specified
uncertainty for the discharge power supply.
bFor the 300 V data. Data for discharge voltage lower than 300 V
was not available for comparision.
6 of 15
B. Raw Probe Data
Figure 4 shows the current density as a function of angle for a
flow rate of 3 mg/s. The measurements
reflect the raw data as collected by the Faraday probe. As the
discharge voltage is decreased the
beam magnitude decreased at the center peak and increased in the
higher o$-axis angles. Facility
limitations prohibited sweeps past 53".
Figure 4. Faraday probe sweeps 250 mm downstream for 3 mg/s
flow rate at five di"erent discharge
voltages
C. Derived E!ciencies
The beam divergence efficiency, "B in Figure 5, was calculated
using Faraday probe data and with
the assumption that the plume was axisymmetric. The current
values, j(#), obtained by each trace
1
create a weighted distribution function of the ion trajectory o$-

axis angles used to calculated the
beam divergence efficiency
"B = "cos $#2 = !# cos #j(#)r2 sin #d#
# j(#)r2 sin #d# "2
. (11)
Beam divergence efficiency is subject to underestimation based
on the positioning of the Faraday
probe and the assumption of axisymmetry in the integral of Eq.11.
An accurate sweep would be
positioned directly over the apex of the beam profile. If the probe
is positioned o$ apex center
it will result in a sweep that displays an artificially low beam
current. By assuming a maximum
vertical probe misalignment of dx =3 cm, the maximum error in
the calculation of "B was estimated
to be 3.5%. There is an unaccounted error due to the
hemispherical integration of charge exchange
ions at high angles, common to Faraday probe results.12
Figures 6 - 8 display the integrated ion-energy per charge
distributions for three o$-axis angles.
The greatest change in efficiency occurred in the 3 mg/s
experiments where the voltage utilization
efficiency dropped from 76% at 300 V to 54% at 100 V when the
probe was positioned 30" o$-
axis. As seen with other Hall thrusters, the voltage utilization
efficiency decreases with increasing
o$ axis angle.15 The traces in figures 6 - 8 are referenced to
cathode potential. Overall voltage
utilization efficiency requires a reference correction with respect
to ground and plasma potentials.
Additionally, since the ion energy is function of o$-axis angle, the
calculation of a total voltage
utilization efficiency must be properly weighted according to the
current distribution function as
7 of 15
1
B
Figure 5. Beam divergence efficiency as calculated by Eq. 11
from Faraday probe sweeps 250 mm
downstream
obtained with the Faraday probe. These adjustments are outlined
in section V and are visible in
figures 10 to 12. The dominant error in figures 6 to 8 came from
the uncertainty in the integrated
ion-energy per charge distributions due to noise in the recorded
%I/%V trace.
V
Figure 6. ¯"/eVd as calculated from RPA data 0! o" axis and 550
mm downstream
The ion-energy per charge distribution is dependent on the local
plasma potential at the position
of the probe. Even though the retarding grid is referenced to
cathode, the energy the ions
have acquired is equal to the potential drop between the discharge
potential and the local plasma
potential. In the absence of the probe, the ions will continue to
accelerate until they reach their
terminal potential, which, in the case of ground testing, is the tank
wall (ground) potential. Hence,
RPA measurements are sensitive to the location of the probe.
Thus, to remove the positional
dependence of the RPA, knowledge of both the local plasma
potential and cathode to ground potential
is necessary. Assuming that the RPA grids are referenced to
ground the energy values can
be corrected by $!ion
q %= $!rpa
q %- "ctg +"plasma (12)
where the charge number is assumed to be unity and the left hand
side is the ion energy to be used
8 of 15
V
1
mm downstream
V
mm downstream
9 of 15
in the correct calculation of Eq. 6.
RPA traces were taken at 0", 15", and 30" and average ion energy
values were linearly interpolated
for angles in between 0" and 15" and in between 15" and 30". The
energy values from
30" out to 53" were assumed to be constant. While the validity of
this extrapolation is admittedly
unknown, past studies indicate the approach is resonable. King’s
RPA results on a 1.5 kW-class
Hall thruster showed that measured probe values varied less than
5% from 30" to 60".15 An assumption
of 5% error in our high-angle extrapolated probe values
propagates through the integral
as 2% uncertainty in the calculation of Eq. 13. Finally, the traces
are weighted against the current
distribution function from the Faraday data and integrated to
obtain the overall voltage utilization
efficiency. Thus, by equation 13 the final values for "V are
obtained and are shown in figures 10 to
12.
"V = # !ion(#)j(#)r2 sin #d#
qeVd # j(#)r2 sin #d#
(13)
Current efficiency, "c, is seen in figure 9 where Id is measured
directly from the discharge
supply. The beam current, Ii, is obtained from an integration of
j(#) as measured by the Faraday
probe. Current in the beam outside the probe’s maximum o$-axis
angle of 53" was not collected
1
and, therefore, Ii is a lower bound. By using a linear extrapolation

of the probe sweeps from
53" to 90"(assuming 0 A/m2 at 90") we estimate the amount of
current that is omitted from our
integration. This technique indicates our "c calculations to have a
maximum underestimation error
of 12% due to the uncollected portions of the beam. Previous
studies have shown, however, that
the beam dies o$ faster much faster than linearly and therefore our
error is a conservative estimate.
The efficiency decays linearly from 300 V - 160 V and then
begins to decline more rapidly.
C
Figure 9. Current efficiency as a function of discharge voltage
V. Discussion
Figures 10 -12 depict the various efficiency terms for each mass
flow rate as measured using probe
techniques. The current efficiency becomes the dominant loss
mechanism for all operation below 200
V. The voltage utilization efficiency increases with increasing
mass flow rate and with decreasing
discharge potentials. Current and beam divergence efficiency,
however, monotonically decay with
decreasing discharge voltage. Experimentally, it is well known
that "c can be increased by adjusting
the magnets to minimize the discharge current.12 In doing so,
however, the thrust efficiency as a
whole declined in spite of reduced discharge current. This implies
that one of the remaining losses
10 of 15
begins to penalize efficiency at a faster rate than the reduced
anode current increased efficiency.
Most unusual is the fact that the voltage utilization efficiency
begins to increase at the lowest of
discharge potentials. It may be that maximum thrust efficiency is
obtained by maximizing voltage
1
utilization and not current efficiency during operation at low

discharge voltages.
Table 1 displays the final values for all calculated and
experimentally determined loss mechanisms.
Plasma-to-cathode values are displayed as determined by the
emissive probe at 0.55 m
downstream 0" o$ axis. The probe studies measured three of the
four loss mechanisms comprising
thrust efficiency. The velocity distribution was not obtained, and
therefore the the ’probe efficiency’
is an upper bound on the thrust efficiency. Probe efficiency is
defined as
"probe = "v"c"B = "T
"vdf
. (14)
Figures 13 - 15 plot thrust and probe e!ciencies as determined by
the thrust stand and probe
studies. The discrepancy between the probe and thrust stand
values can be attributed to several
things: overestimation of the beam divergence, inflated thrust
measurements due to background
neutrals, inflated thrust measurements due to cathode propellant
ingestion, and underestimation
of the current efficiency. The last of which is because the current
fraction at high angles was not
recorded. At low discharge voltages where the beam divergence is
greater this omission has a larger
e$ect on the calculation of current efficiency. The two
benchmarks are in closest alignment at low
discharge voltages for the 4 and 5 mg/s trials, and in the highest of
discharge voltages for the 3
mg/s trial.
V
B
C
3 mg/s
1
Figure 10. ! values for 3 mg/s

VI. Conclusions
Probe studies and thrust stand measurements were performed on
an Aerojet BPT-2000 Hall
thruster at discharge voltage from 100 V to 300 V for 3 to 5 mg/s
flow of xenon. The Hall
thruster was unable to run stably at discharge voltages below 180
V at 5 mg/s. Thrust e!ciencies
determined by the thrust stand measurements reached as low as
15% and the probe studies recorded
11 of 15
V
B
C
4 mg/s
V
B
C
5 mg/s
probe
T
3 mg/s
Figure 13. Thrust efficiency from the thrust stand and probe
efficiency from the probe studies for 3
mg/s
12 of 15
probe
T
4 mg/s
1
mg/s
probe
T
5 mg/s
mg/s
13 of 15
Anode to Cathode (V)
Current (A)
Mass Flow (mg/s)
Thrust (mN)
Cathode to Ground (V)
Plasma to Cathode (V)
!V
!B
!C
!probe
!T
300 2.85 3 65.63 -27.00 46.10 0.78 0.80 0.78 0.49 0.50
250 2.84 3 57.12 -26.30 41.85 0.74 0.78 0.78 0.45 0.46
200 2.89 3 45.62 -22.50 35.07 0.72 0.77 0.77 0.43 0.36
140 3.59 3 31.96 -13.90 18.53 0.70 0.73 0.62 0.31 0.20
100 4.81 3 26.77 -9.70 12.61 0.72 0.69 0.46 0.23 0.15
300 3.92 4 73.60 -28.10 49.88 0.79 0.81 0.76 0.48 0.58
250 3.90 4 63.82 -25.90 44.29 0.76 0.80 0.76 0.46 0.52
200 3.99 4 51.40 -24.60 37.65 0.71 0.77 0.74 0.41 0.41
140 6.26 4 43.44 -11.10 17.88 0.80 0.71 0.47 0.27 0.27
300 4.96 5 72.63 -28.70 54.32 0.80 0.82 0.75 0.49 0.59
250 5.01 5 64.71 -210 45.39 0.79 0.81 0.74 0.47 0.56
200 5.15 5 53.21 -23.90 41.28 0.74 0.78 0.72 0.42 0.46
65.633 300 2.849 300
45.6158 200 2.843 250
1
0 0 26.7655 100 2.89 200

Table 1. Comprehensive summary of all ! values
as low as 23%. The dominant loss mechanism at the lowest
discharge potentials was the current
efficiency, whereas the voltage utilization efficiency increased in
value; the only loss mechanism to
do so across all operating conditions. While the current efficiency
can be increased by adjusting the
magnet current, overall thrust efficiency su$ers, indicating a
coupled e$ect with one of the other
loss mechanisms.
References
1Kim, V., “Main Physical Features and Processes Determining
the Performace of Stationary Plasma Thrusters,”
Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 14, No. 5, 1998, pp. 736–
743.
2Andrenucci, M., Berti, M., Biagioni, L., and Cesari, U.,
“Characteristics of the XHT-100 Low Power Hall
Thruster Prototype,” 4th International Spacecraft Propulsion
Conference, Vol. ESA SP-555, Chia Laguna, Sardinia,
Italy, October 2004.
3Ozaki, T., Inanaga, Y., Nakagawa, T., and Osuga, H.,
“Development Status of 200mN Class Xenon Hall
Thruster of MELCO,” 29th International Electric Propulsion
Conference, Vol. IEPC-2005-064, Princeton, NJ, October
31 - November 4 2005.
4Zakharenkov, L. E., Semenkin, A. V., and Garkusha, V. I.,
“Study of the 3-TAL Thruster Assembly Operation,”
29th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Vol. IEPC-
2005-185, Princeton, NJ, October 31 - November 4 2005.
5Manzella, D. and Jacobson, D., “Investigation of Low-
Voltage/High-Thrust Hall Thruster Operation,” 39th
AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and
Exhibit, Vol. AIAA-2003-5004, Huntsville, Alabama,
July 20-23 2003.
6Ashkenazy, J., Shitrit, S., and Appelbaum, G., “Hall Thruster
Modifications for Reduced Power Operation,”
1
29th International Electric Propulsion Conference, Vol. IEPC-

2005-080, Princeton, NJ, October 31 - November 4
2005.
7Massey, D. R., King, L. B., and Makela, J. M., “Progress on the
Development of a Direct Evaporation
Bismuth Hall Thruster,” 29th International Electric Propulsion
Conference, Vol. IEPC-2005-256, Princeton, New
Jersey, October 31 - November 4 2005.
8Kieckhafer, A. and King, L. B., “Energetics of Propellant
Options for High-Power Hall Thrusters,” 41st
Exhibit, Vol. AIAA-2005-4228, Tucson, Arizona, July
10-13 2005.
9King, D., Tilley, D., Aadland, R., Nottingham, K., Smith, R.,
Roberts, C., Hruby, V., Pote, B., and Monheiser,
J., “Development of the BPT family of U.S.-designed Hall current
thrusters for commercial LEO and GEO applications,”
34th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and
Exhibit, Vol. AIAA-1998-3338, Cleveland,
Ohio, July 13-15 1998.
14 of 15
10Haag, T. W., “Design of a thrust stand for high power electric
propulsion devices,” 25th
AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit,
Vol. AIAA-1989-2829, Monterey, CA, July 10-13
1989.
11Kemp, R. F. and Jr., J. M. S., “Plasma Potential Measurements
by Electron Emissive Probes,” Review of
Scientific Instruments, Vol. 37, No. 4, 1966, pp. 455–461.
12Larson, C. W., Brown, D. L., and Hargus, W. A., “Thrust
E"ciency, Energy E"ciency, and the Role of
the VDF in Hall Thruster Performance Analysis,” 43rd
Exhibit, Vol. AIAA 2007-5270, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 8-11 2007.
13Bugrova, A. I., Kim, V., Maslennikov, N. A., and Morozov, A.
I., “Physical Processes and Characteristics
1
of Stationary Plasma Thrusters With Closed Electrons Drift,”

AIDAA/AIAA/DGLR/JSASS 22nd International
Electric Propulsion Conference, Viareggio, Italy, October 14-17
1991.
14Hofer, R. R. and Gallimore, A. D., “E"ciency Analysis of a
High-Specific Impulse Hall Thruster,” 40th
AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit,
Vol. AIAA-2004-3602, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,
July 11-14 2004.
15King, L. B., Transport-Property and Mass Spectral
Measurements in the Plasma Exhaust Plume of a Hall-E!ect
Space Propulsion System, Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan,
1998.
15 of 15
1
Variable Specific Impulse Magneto

plasma Rocket
Artist's impression of several VASIMR engines

propelling a craft through space
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma

Rocket (VASIMR) is an electro-magnetic thruster for
spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize and
heat a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the
resulting plasma to generate thrust. It is one of several
types of spacecraft electric propulsion systems.
1
The method of heating plasma used in VASIMR was

originally developed as a result of research into nuclear
fusion. VASIMR is intended to bridge the gap between
high-thrust, low-specific impulse propulsion systems
and low-thrust, high-specific impulse systems.
VASIMR is capable of functioning in either mode.
Costa Rican scientist and former astronaut Franklin
Chang-Diaz created the VASIMR concept and has
been working on its development since 1977.[1]
The Variable Specific Impulse Magneto plasma

Rocket, sometimes referred to as the Electro-thermal
Plasma Thruster or Electro-thermal Magneto plasma
Rocket, uses radio waves [2] to ionize and heat
propellant and magnetic fields, accelerating the
resulting plasma which generates thrust. This type of
1
engine is electrode less and as such belongs to the

same electric propulsion family (while differing in the
method of plasma acceleration) as the electrodeless
plasma thruster, the microwave arcjet, or the pulsed
inductive thruster class. It can also be seen as an
electrodeless version of an arcjet, able to reach higher
propellant temperature by limiting the heat flux from
the plasma to the structure. Neither type of engine has
any electrodes. The main advantage of such designs is
elimination of problems with electrode erosion that
cause rival designs of ion thrusters which use
electrodes to have a short life expectancy.
Furthermore, since every part of a VASIMR engine is
magnetically shielded and does not come into direct
contact with plasma, the potential durability of this
engine design is greater than other ion/plasma engine
designs.[1]
The engine design encompasses three parts: turning

gas into plasma via helicon RF antennas; energizing
plasma via further RF heating in an ion cyclotron
resonance frequency (ICRF) booster; and using
electromagnets to create a magnetic nozzle to convert
the plasma's built-up thermal energy into kinetic force.
By varying the amount of energy dedicated to RF
heating and the amount of propellant delivered for
plasma generation VASIMR is capable of either
generating low-thrust, high-specific impulse exhaust or
relatively high-thrust, low-specific impulse exhaust.[3]
1
In contrast with usual cyclotron resonance heating

processes, in VASIMR ions are immediately ejected
through the magnetic nozzle before they have time to
achieve thermalized distribution. Based on novel
theoretical work in 2004 by Arefiev and Breizman of
UT-Austin, virtually all of the energy in the ion
cyclotron wave is uniformly transferred to ionized
plasma in a single-pass cyclotron absorption process.
This allows for ions to leave the magnetic nozzle with
a very narrow energy distribution and for significantly
simplified and compact magnet arrangement in the
engine.[3]
VASIMR does not use electrodes and magnetically

shields plasma from all the hardware parts, thus
eliminating electrode erosion, a major source of wear
and tear in ion engines. Compared to traditional rocket
engines with very complex plumbing, high
performance valves, actuators and turbo pumps,
VASIMR eliminates practically all moving parts from
its design (apart from minor ones like gas valves),
maximizing its long term durability .
However, some new problems emerge like interaction

with strong magnetic fields and thermal management.
The relatively large power at which VASIMR operates
generates a lot of waste heat which needs to be
channeled away without creating thermal overload and
undue thermal stress on materials used. Powerful
superconducting electromagnets, employed to contain
hot plasma, generate tesla-range magnetic fields.[4]
1
They can present problems with other on board devices

and also can adversely interact with Earth
magnetosphere. To counter this latter effect the VF-
200 will consist of two 100 kW thruster units packaged
together with the magnetic field of each thruster
oriented in opposite directions in order to make a zero-
torque Quadra pole.
A view of 50kW VASIMR
SA, Franklin Chang-Diaz set up the Ad Astra Rocket

Company in January 2005 to begin development of the
VASIMR engine. Later that year, the company signed
a Space Act Agreement with NASA, and were granted
control of the Advanced Space Propulsion
Laboratory.[5] In this lab, a 50 kW prototype was
constructed, and underwent testing in a vacuum
1
chamber. Later, a 100 kW version was developed, and

this was followed by a 200 kW prototype. After a long
period of rigorous testing in a 150 m3 vacuum
chamber, the latest configuration was deemed space-
worthy, and it was announced that the company had
entered into an agreement to test the engine on the
International Space Station, in or before 2013.
The first VASIMR engine model VX50 proved to be

capable of 0.5 newtons (0.1 lbf) thrust. According to
company's data, current VASIMR efficiency was then
at 67%. Published data on the VX50 engine, capable of
processing 50 kW of total radio frequency power,
showed efficiency to be 59% calculated as: 90% NA
ion generation efficiency × 65% NB ion speed boosting
efficiency. It was hoped that the overall efficiency of
the engine could be increased by scaling up power
levels.
Model VX100 was expected to have an overall

efficiency of 72% by improving the NB ion speed
boosting efficiency to 80%.[6][7] There were, however,
additional (smaller) efficiency losses related to the
conversion of DC electric current to radio frequency
power and also to the superconducting magnets' energy
consumption. By comparison, 2009 state-of-the-art,
proven ion engine designs such as NASA's HiPEP
operated at 80% total thruster/PPU energy
efficiency.[8].
1
Development of the 200 kW engine
On October 24, 2008 the company announced that the

plasma generation aspect of the VX-200 engine:
helicon first stage or solid-state high frequency power
transmitter, has reached operational status. The key
enabling technology, solid-state DC-RF power-
processing, has become very efficient reaching up to
98% efficiency. The helicon discharge uses 30 kWe of
radio waves to turn argon gas into plasma. The
remaining 170 kWe of power is allocated for passing
energy to, and acceleration of, plasma in the second
part of the engine via ion cyclotron resonance
heating.[9]
Based on data released from previous VX-100

testing,[4] it was expected that the VX-200 engine
would have a system efficiency of 60-65% and thrust
level of 5N. Optimal specific impulse appeared to be
around 5000s using low cost argon propellant. The
specific power estimated at 1.5 kg/kW meant that this
version of the VASIMR engine would weigh only
about 300 kg. One of the remaining untested issues
was potential vs actual thrust; that is, whether the hot
plasma actually got detached from the rocket. Another
issue was waste heat management (60% efficiency
means about 80 kW of unnecessary heat) critical to
allowing for continuous operation of VASIMR engine.]
1
Between April and September 2009, tests were

performed on the VX-200 prototype with fully
integrated 2 Tesla superconducting magnets. They
successfully expanded the power range of the
VASIMR up to its full operational capability of
200 kW.[10]
Testing on the space station
On December 10, 2008, Ad Astra Company signed an

agreement with NASA to arrange the placement and
testing of a flight version of the VASIMR, the VF-200,
on the International Space Station (ISS). Its launch is
anticipated to be in 2011 or 2012,[11][12] though it may
be later.[5] Since the available power from the ISS is
less than 200 kW, the ISS VASIMR will include a
trickle-charged battery system allowing for 15 min
pulses of thrust.
The ISS orbits at a relatively low altitude, so as to

make it easily accessible from Earth. The downside of
this, however, is that the ISS experiences fairly high
levels of atmospheric drag, making periodic boosts of
altitude necessary. Currently, altitude reboosting by
chemical rockets fulfills this requirement. If the tests of
VASIMR reboosting of the ISS goes according to plan,
the increase in specific impulse could mean that the
cost of fuel for altitude reboosting will be one-
twentieth of the current $210 million annual cost.[5]
Hydrogen is generated by the ISS as a by-product,
which is currently vented into space.
1
Potential future applications
VASIMR magnetic field
VASIMR is not suitable to launch payloads from the

surface of the Earth due to its low thrust to weight ratio
and its need of a vacuum to operate. Instead, it would
function as an upper stage for cargo, reducing the fuel
requirements for in-space transportation. The engine is
expected to perform the following functions at a
fraction of the cost of chemical technologies:
• drag compensation for space stations

• lunar cargo delivery
• satellite repositioning
• satellite refueling, maintenance and repair
• in space resource recovery
• ultra fast deep space robotic missions
Other applications for VASIMR such as the rapid

transportation of people to Mars would require a very
1
high power, low mass energy source, such as a nuclear

reactor (see nuclear electric rocket). NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden said that VASIMR
technology could be the breakthrough technology that
would reduce the travel time on a Mars mission from
months to days.[13]
In August 2008, Tim Glover, Ad Astra director of

development, publicly stated that the first expected
application of VASIMR engine is "hauling things
[non-human cargo] from low-Earth orbit to low-lunar
orbit" supporting NASA's return to Moon efforts.[11]
Use as a "space tug" and orbital transfer

vehicle
The most important near-future application of

VASIMR-powered spacecraft is transportation of
cargo. Numerous studies have shown that, despite
longer transit times, VASIMR-powered spacecraft will
be much more efficient than traditional integrated
chemical rockets at moving goods through space. An
orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) — essentially a "space
tug" — powered by a single VF-200 engine would be
capable of transporting about 7 metric tons of cargo
from low Earth orbit (LEO) to low Lunar orbit (LLO)
with about a six month long transit time. NASA
envisages delivering about 34 metric tons of useful
cargo to LLO in a single flight with a chemically
propelled vehicle. To make that trip, about 60 metric
tons of LOX-LH2 propellant would be burned. A
1
comparable OTV would need to employ 5 VF-200

engines powered by a 1 MW solar array. To do the
same job, such OTV would need to expend only about
8 metric tons of argon propellant. Total mass of such
electric OTV would be in the range of 49 t (outbound
& return fuel: 9 t, hardware: 6 t, cargo 34 t). The OTV
transit times can be reduced by carrying lighter loads
and/or expending more argon propellant with
VASIMR throttled down to lower Isp. For instance, an
empty OTV on the return trip to Earth covers the
distance in about 23 days at optimal specific impulse
of 5,000 s (50 kN·s/kg) or in about 14 days at Isp of
3,000 s (30 kN·s/kg). The total mass of the NASA
specs' OTV (including structure, solar array, fuel tank,
avionics, propellant and cargo) was assumed to be 100
metric tons (98.4 long tons; 110 short tons)[14] allowing
almost double the cargo capacity compared to
chemically propelled vehicle but requiring even bigger
solar arrays (or other source of power) capable of
providing 2 MW.
As of October 2010, Ad Astra Rocket Company is

working toward utilizing VASIMIR technology for
space tug missions to help "clean up the ever-growing
problem of space trash." They hope to have a first-
generation commercial offering by 2014.[15]
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika provides with new type of

VASIMR named VASIMR DANISHA to give more
thrust to travel up to 56000 hours.

VASIMR DANISHA:A Hall Thruster Space Odyssey

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VASIMR DANISHA:A Hall Thruster Space Odyssey

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VASIMR

By Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika, PhD,

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika, A.E.S.

Res: “Anjena Manzil”, Kadomtola, Modhupur, P.O. Modhupur,

PREFACE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[[File:Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika & his two kids.jpg [1]

Azad Bin Rajib Hazarika

Born July 2, 1970 (age 40)

Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Residence Nagaon, Assam, India

Ethnicity Assamese Muslim

Education PhD, PDF, FRAS

Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Diphu Govt. College ,

Diphu Government College

Lecturer ,Assistant Professor,Mathematician, Academician

Home town Nagaon, Assam, India

Salary Rs 40000 per month

Height 6 feet and 2 inches

Doctorate, Dr., FRAS (London), Assam Education Service,

Member of Scientific and Technical committee & Editorial

Spouse Helmin Begum Hazarika

Children Laquit Ali Hazarika(son), Danisha Begum Hazarika(daughter)

Rosmat Ali Hazarika@Rostam Ali Hazarika@Roufat Ali

Call-sign Drabrh or Raja

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika,PhD,FRAS,AES (born July 02, 1970, in

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was born into the famous Hazarika family,

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika completed his PhD degree in Mathematics

He joined the Diphu Government College[20] in July 2004 as

Education Service [22] ,AES-I. [23] now redesignated as

In May 1993, Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was awarded Junior

During PhD </ref> http://www.iopscience.iop.org/1402-

during PDF the research was based on Astronomy, Astrophysics,

Patent & Innovation

Applied for patent in US patent and trademarks office has

(DTC), Magnetic confinement Tokomak collider (MCTC) hub,

Research guidence is given to two students in Mathematics for

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika has a metallic Scarlet red Tata Indigo CS

• "Fakir(saint) and lakir(line) stops at nothing but at

Awards and recognition

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika got Junior Research

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

dr ab rajib hazarika aes 19:01, 16 October 2010 (UTC) dr ab rajib

Categories: Jai Narayan Vyas University alumni | Institute of

DIFFUSION ASSOCIATED NEOCLASSICAL

Hall thrusters were studied independently in the US and the USSR

Two types of Hall thrusters were developed in the Soviet Union:

• thrusters with wide acceleration zone, SPD (Russian:

SPT, Stationary Plasma Thruster) at Design Bureau

Soviet and Russian SPD thrusters

The common SPD design was largely the work of A. I.

SPD-160, SPD-180, T-160 and low-power (less than 500 W)

Soviet and Russian DAS-type engines include D-38 and D-55.[2]

Soviet-built thrusters were introduced to the West in 1992 after a

This technology was used on the European lunar mission

What's a Hall Thruster?

The Hall thruster is a type of plasma-based propulsion systems

A conventional electrostatic ion thruster consists of two grids,

In a Hall thruster, electrons injected into a radial magnetic field

The Hall Thruster Concept

"Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory: Fueling the Future"

application of plasma physics to solve near-term problems is also

The essential working principle of the Hall thruster is that it uses

Hall thrusters are largely axially symmetric. This is a cross-