RESULT OF 16,000 HOURS ENDURANCE TEST ON 20mN CLASS XENON ION THRUSTER FOR ETS-VIII

摘要

The Ion Engine Subsystem (IES) for North-South Station Keeping (NSSK) maneuver of Engineering Test Satellite VIII (ETS-VIII) is under development at MELCO under the contract of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). ETS-VIII is a 3-ton class one with 10 years bus lifetime. ETS-VIII IES was modified subsystem construction and components design on the basis of ETS-VI IES for higher durability and lower cost of the product. In particular, it was essential to extend the lifetime of the thruster for applying to ETS-VIII. The required total impulse is 1.06x10~6N-sec for ETS-VIII, while it was 0.67x10~6N-sec for ETS-VI. The ETS-VI thruster was confirmed to have lifetime of about 8,000 hours by the ground life test. The thruster was modified to the design for having about twice the lifetime of the ETS-VI one. The 16,000 hours endurance test of the thruster was completed in Oct. 2005. This paper describes the ETS-VIII IES outline and the result of the life test results of the ETS-VIII ion thrusters.