SPT-100 is a
Hall-effect
The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It was discove ...
ion thruster
An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity.
An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of a ...
, part of the SPT-family of thrusters. SPT stands for ''Stationary Plasma Thruster''. It creates a stream of electrically charged
xenon
Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
ions accelerated by an electric field and confined by a magnetic field.
The thruster is manufactured by Russian
OKB Fakel
EDB Fakel (Russian ''ОКБ "Факел"'') is a Russian electric propulsion system development company. It is located in Kaliningrad in Kaliningrad Oblast. It was founded in 1955 as a ''Propulsion laboratory'' of the Soviet Academy of Sciences; ...
, and was first launched onboard
Gals-1 satellite in 1994.
In 2003 Fakel debuted a second generation of the thruster, called SPT-100B, and in 2011 it presented further upgrades in SPT-100M prototypes.
As of 2011 SPT-100 thrusters were used in 18 Russian and 14 foreign spacecraft, including
IPSTAR-II,
Telstar-8 and
Ekspress
Ekspress (russian: Экспресс meaning Express), is a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). The first satellite of this kind was launched on 13 October 1994. The satellit ...
A and AM constellations.
Specifications
See also
*
PPS-1350
PPS-1350 is a Hall-effect thruster, a kind of ion propulsion system for spacecraft. It was used in the SMART-1 mission to the moon and one geostationary satellites: Inmarsat-4A F4.
It creates a stream of electrically charged xenon ions acceler ...
Stationary plasma thrustersPDF)
References
{{Reflist
Ion engines
Spacecraft propulsion