Design and development of a small structurally integrated ion thruster system

A 5 cm structurally integrated ion thruster has been developed for attitude control and stationkeeping of synchronous satellites. With 2-D vectorable grids, thrust is 0.56 mlb at a beam voltage of 1200 V, total mass efficiency is 64%, and electrical efficiency is 46.8%. Nonvectoring thrust of 0.41 is demonstrated at very low specific impulse with dielectric coated grids. Structural integrity is demonstrated with dielectric coated grids for shock (30 G), sinusoidal (9 G), and random (19 G squared/Hz) accelerations. System envelope is 31.6 cm long by 14 cm flange B.C. with a mass of 8.5 kg including 6.2 Kg mercury propellant.