Reported by: Bao Xuan
Photographed by: Bao Xuan
Translated by: Qiao Xuechao
Edited by: Garrick Jones
On November 3, the Long March 5 carrier rocket successfully launched in Hainan Wenchang Satellite Launching Center, carrying Shijian-17 satellite which used the HEP-100MF which was jointly developed by the team lead by Yu Daren from HIT Energy Resources Department, and the team lead by Ceramic Research Institute of HIT Material Department and CAST 502 Institute. On November 22, the thruster ignited successfully in geosynchronous orbit, which marks the first application of magnetic-focus (HEP-100MF) in space.
Aiming to improve the problems in the large jet divergence angle of a traditional Hall thruster, which beam’s bombard wall surfaces which can reduce the lifetime of the thruster, reduce specific impulse and efficiency, etc, the team lead by Professor Yu Daren, with the support of the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the Innovative Research Group of Natural Science Foundation of China, and basic scientific research and other projects, has developed the study of plasma flow control and magnetic focus, breaking through the wide-range magnetic focus technology of Hall thruster, thermo-electromagnetic coupling technology, low frequency oscillation control technology, low-power consumption and high-reliability hollow cathode, sputtering-resistant boron nitride special ceramics materials, and other key technologies one after another, which resulted in the high-performance and high-reliability and the stable discharge of small plume in flight prototypes, in which the half-angle divergence of plume is 15° and it runs ahead of the international advanced level, and the specific impulse increased by 20% which compared with the international same kind of SPT100, which will reduce the fuel consumption of the thruster and the influence of plume on spacecraft. All of these improvements provided the new generation of long-life spaceflight platform for advanced Hall electric thruster, which can be applied to space station, deep space exploration, high and low orbit Earth satellite orbit control, etc.
Launch Site
R&D Team
