China's first 50-kilowatt dual-ring nested Hall thruster successfully ignited and operated

　　China News Service, Xi'an, February 3 (Reporter Zhang Yichen) The reporter learned from the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology) on the 3rd that the 50-kilowatt double-ring nested Hall thrust developed by the 801 Institute of the Academy The thruster successfully achieved ignition and stable operation, and the test verified the single-ring ignition and dual-ring simultaneous ignition capabilities of the inner and outer rings of the thruster. This is China's first 50-kilowatt double-ring nested Hall thruster, marking China becoming the third country in the world to achieve a breakthrough in nested Hall electric propulsion technology.

　　This is the achievement of the 801 Institute of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology after successfully realizing the breakthrough of Hall thruster thrust from millinewton level to newton level in 2020 and successfully increasing the power level of China's Hall thruster to hundreds of kilowatts in 2022. Another milestone technological breakthrough, making new contributions to the development of China's electric propulsion technology.

　　High-power Hall electric propulsion has the comprehensive advantages of large thrust, high specific impulse, simple and reliable system, and is currently the international mainstream high-power electric propulsion technology route closest to space applications. As one of the high-power Hall electric propulsion technology routes, nested Hall electric propulsion has the characteristics of wide operating condition adjustment range and high thrust density. Under the same power, the size of the thruster is significantly smaller than that of the conventional single-ring Hall thruster. Smaller, it is more conducive to layout and engineering applications on spacecraft, providing greater choice for high-power space electric propulsion platforms.

　　As a national team for Hall electric propulsion technology research, the 801 Institute of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology successfully completed China's first Hall electric propulsion in-orbit flight verification in 2012. The institute has accumulated more than 60 Hall thrusters flying in orbit. Applied to 34 spacecraft. (over)