From: richard.hofer@grc.nasa.gov (Richard Hofer)
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: Hall effect thruster
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 16:33:40 GMT
Organization: QSS Group
References: <c7qna1$2ngv$1@saturn.cs.uml.edu>


Gareth,

The geometry of an ion thruster is much different than a Hall
thruster, so this wouldn't be a very good approximation. More
importantly, the acceleration through the grids of an ion thruster is
charge limited because only the ions are accelerated. A Hall thruster
accelerates ions in a quasineutral plasma and is a fundamentally
different situation than what is encountered between the grids of an
ion thruster.

Rich Hofer


On 11 May 2004 10:17:37 -0400, Gareth Dooley
<gareth@627productions.com> wrotE:

>
>Can anyone tell me if you can model a Hall Effect thruster on a conventional
>ion thruster, buy assuming that the anode and Hall current areas, are the
>accelerator grids in ion thruster????
>
>
>
>
>
>Many Thanks
>
>Gareth Dooley
>