A Hall Effect Thruster is an ion engine used in satellites and spacecraft once in orbit. Through Olin Plasma Engineering Lab, I have helped with the mechanical design of the first Hall Effect Thruster to be designed, built, and fired by a fully undergraduate team. My focus on this Hall Effect Thruster was the gas diffuser. Our gas diffuser allows us to increase the time the gas spends in the channel, in theory, increasing our ionization rate. Through testing, we found that we did not have an even distribution of plasma. I designed the next iteration of the diffuser with more outlet holes to prevent this and more distributed heating.
Last year, I led the mechanical design of our next Hall Effect Thruster. We worked on increasing the manufacturability of our design, introducing magnetic shielding, and trying new diffuser designs.
This year, I am the project manager for the lab. We are working on the testing and validation of a magnetically shielded Hall Effect Thruster, as well as improving our vacuum system and testing infrastructure. We are laying the foundation to embark on our goal of designing a propulsion system for a CubeSat.
