Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor 1
Jason Blough
Committee Member 1
Lyon Brad King
Committee Member 2
Jason Sommerville
Committee Member 3
Scott Hall
Abstract
Xenon has long been the propellant of choice in Hall Thrusters; however, significant work has been performed to produce thrusters capable of utilizing alternate propellants due to xenon’s price and scarcity. Krypton is the most similar alternative propellant to xenon. This work examines the performance of a sub-kilowatt magnetically shielded Hall Thruster operating on both xenon and krypton. Krypton produced lower thrust, specific impulse, and was less efficient than xenon. Specifically, the absolute xenon-krypton efficiency gap was 6 to 24 % . Krypton’s inferior efficiency is primarily attributable to differences in mass utilization and beam divergence losses. The impacts of elevating discharge voltage and current were explored. These efforts showed elevated discharge voltage minimally improves krypton performance, whereas elevated discharge current significantly improves krypton performance. However, neither closes the xenon-krypton efficiency gap. This work also suggests that cathode propellant influences the thruster’s cathode coupling, voltage utilization, and divergence efficiencies.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Knott, Jacob Henry, "CHARACTERIZATION OF KRYPTON PERFORMANCE IN A LABORATORY 300 W MAGNETICALLY SHIELDED HALL-EFFECT THRUSTER", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2025.