Iodine-Compatible Hall Effect Thruster

The Hall effect thruster (HET) was designed for long-duration operation with gaseous iodine as the propellant. Iodine is an alternative to the state-of-the-art propellant xenon. Compared to xenon, iodine stores as a solid at much higher density and at a much lower pressure. Because iodine is a halogen, it is reactive with some of the materials with which a Hall thruster is typically constructed. Through research and testing, the new method allows for the HET to be used with iodine propellant for long periods of time.