SBIR-STTR Award

Electric propulsion for space is attractive for NASA, military, and commercial missions. NASA has identified manufacturing issues that have resulted in significant costs to achieve performance repeatability and hardware reliability. Without addressing the process and materials issues, both the production of existing thrusters and the development of new thrusters will continue to face the prospect of high costs. Current Hall effect thrusters make use of hexagonal boron nitride (BN) for the discharge channel in which plasma is generated and accelerated. Current materials have exhibited substantial lot-to-lot variability. Such material property inconsistencies have thus necessitated costly thruster design features to improve survivability margins against mechanical and thermal shock. ACM has identified a key approach to improve the lot-to-lot consistency of BN based channel materials. ACM’s PAL process technology will produce a highly uniform microstructure after hot pressing. This will produce a high performance, repeatable BN material that is ideal for Hall effect thruster channels. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) The proposed technology will find NASA use in HERMES propulsion system, in future deep space propulsion systems, and for station keeping of near Earth research satellites. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) The proposed technology will find use in commercial satellite propulsion systems.

Both NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) need spacecraft with demanding propulsive performance and greater flexibility for more ambitious missions requiring high duty cycles and extended operations under challenging environmental conditions. Planetary spacecraft need the ability to rendezvous with, orbit, and conduct in situ exploration of planets, moons, and other small bodies. For these applications, Hall Effect thrusters are being designed to meet the propulsion need. Current Hall effect thrusters make use of hexagonal boron nitride (BN) for the discharge channel in which plasma is generated and accelerated. However, the BN materials have exhibited substantial lot-to-lot variability. Such material property inconsistencies have thus necessitated costly thruster design features to improve survivability margins against mechanical and thermal shock. ACM has developed PAL BN materials that will reduce the causes of variability and offer predictable performance. ACM’s PAL technology produces a highly uniform microstructure with significant improvements in mechanical properties. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words): The proposed technology may find use in NASA missions // applications like in HERMES, lunar Gateway, and Psyche propulsion systems. Other applications would be in manned Mars missions, future deep space missions, and for station keeping of near Earth research satellites. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words): The proposed technology will find primary use in commercial satellite propulsion systems. The materials will also find dual use in the area of machinable ceramics. Duration: 24