Hall Thruster Database – Penn State (Behrend)

INSTITUTION

Penn State Behrend

CLASS

Cobalt Class (2019 – 2020)

STUDENT TEAM

Perry Chambers Jr., Software Engineering
Bansari Patel, Software Engineering
Richard Sevic, Computer Science

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

Dean Lewis, Assistant Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Penn State Behrend

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Psyche spacecraft will utilize an electric propulsion system composed of a set of Hall effect thrusters (HETs) in order to enable the spacecraft to reach the asteroid and maintain each of its science orbits. On the ground, HETs are tested in large vacuum facilities in order to simulate space conditions and these tests result in published studies, reports, and datasets. Teams are performing a survey of published literature in order to identify existing Hall thruster systems and relevant specifications (i.e., TRL, power level, performance metrics, etc.) and compiling these data into a database with a corresponding user interface that can be easily searched by mission designers to identify and select the appropriate electric propulsion system for their application.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of Penn State University Capstone Courses “SWENG 480 & CMPSC 484”. The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.asu.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.