NASA Turns On Psyche’s Electric Hall Thrusters

NASA announced that Psyche is in "full cruise" after firing its hall thrusters.

NASA Turned On Psyche's Hall Thrusters

NASA's Psyche spacecraft cleared its six-month examination with flying colors, so there's no stopping it now. As the orbiter speeds deeper into deep space, navigators are firing its futuristic-looking electric thrusters almost continually, producing a blue glow.

Psyche maximized its rocket boost after exiting our atmosphere and coasted past Mars' orbit. According to NASA, the spacecraft will be in "full cruise" mode for the next year, during which time its electric thrusters will take over and move the orbiter in the direction of the asteroid belt. The thrusters function by ejecting xenon ions or charged atoms, leaving a dazzling blue glow behind the spacecraft. They are a component of Psyche's solar electric propulsion system, which runs on sunlight and is very efficient.

Although the ionized xenon creates a moderate thrust, it is effective. Even in full cruise mode, the thrusters' pressure is comparable to what you would experience if you held three-quarters in your hand.

As the spacecraft approaches Mars, it will cut its thrusters and use the planet's gravity to propel itself out of the atmosphere. In the spring of 2026, the spacecraft will return to the Red Planet according to its route. The thrusters will then go back to full cruise mode. The next stop will be asteroid Psyche, the metal-rich space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is the mission's target.

Psyche is a NASA mission to study the asteroid of the same name, which has more metal than rock or ice. Psyche launched atop a conventional SpaceX Falcon Heavy from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 13, 2023.

How Hall Thrusters Work?

Hall thrusters are ion accelerators that operate on an electrostatic basis, whereby the grid system. In place of the traditional ion engines (which attach the negative charges utilized to accelerate the ions),

with a magnetic field that is roughly strong and perpendicular to the flow. This field of magnetism hinders electrons in the accelerating field counterflow and, as will be demonstrated, eliminates the space-charge constraint that limits ion engine flow and thrust.

Halthrusters' process includes ion creation. An electron gun fires negative electrons into space, but a positive anode pulls some of them into discharge. Meanwhile, Xenon atoms or other inert gases are fed into the channel. The electrons hit the Xenon atoms so hard that they knock off an electric charge, and the Xenon atoms become positive Xenon ions.

Next, the electron tornado electromagnets at the channel entrance produce powerful magnetic fields 500 times stronger than Earth's. The field traps incoming electrons, which orbit the channel one million times per second. This results in an electron tornado that massively increases the number of collisions with Xenon atoms, creating more ions and much more thrust. The electrons lose momentum during collisions and fall back to the anode, but they will flow back to the hollow cathode and complete the circuit.

Since the opposite charges attract, the positive ions are strongly pulled toward the negative electron tornado, which then fired out of the thruster up to 25 times faster than a bullet.

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