Effects of Magnetic Field Configuration on the Performance of 100 W-Class Hall Thruster Using Carbon Dioxide

We focused on Carbon dioxide (CO2) as an alternative propellant for Hall thrusters which is inexpensive and advantageous for Mars exploration missions (ISRU: In-Situ Resource Utilization). In our previous study, a significant reduction in thrust efficiency compared to Xe was confirmed. From the result, it is suggested that CO2 is not sufficiently ionized, and ions could not be accelerated enough because Hall thruster used in the study was designed for Xe and had a smaller plasma generation region. Therefore, in this study, the yoke, which was originally installed to shield the magnetic field lines was removed. The plasma generation region was expanded by changing the distribution of the magnetic field to improve previous results. However, the thrust was about 30% lower than before the change, and the same was true for the thrust, current utilization, and mass utilization efficiencies. This was considered to be caused by a decrease in the number density of ions due to the expansion of the plasma generation region.