Author Description

An overview of NASA's Hall thruster research and development tasks conducted during fiscal year 2004 is presented. These tasks focus on: raising the technology readiness level of high power Hall thrusters, developing a moderate-power/ moderate specific impulse Hall thruster, demonstrating high-power/high specific impulse Hall thruster operation, and addressing the fundamental technical challenges of emerging Hall thruster concepts. Programmatic background information, technical accomplishments and out year plans for each program element performed under the sponsorship of the In-Space Transportation Program, Project Prometheus, and the Energetics Project are provided.