Busek’s BHT-1500 is a 2kW-class Hall Effect thruster with innovative center-mounted cathode. The center-mounted cathode precludes performance degradation and outperforms all other competitive designs. Independent testing at The Aerospace Corporation demonstrated the thruster has 10% higher specific impulse and 15% higher thrust efficiency than the nearest competitive HET product available on the market. This performance advantage can generate hundreds of kilograms in mass savings (launch mass savings) for the average medium class GEO communications satellite, or millions of dollars in added revenue over the life of a given spacecraft (added mass capacity).

The BHT-1500 provides high performance with 103mN thrust at 1800W power and a specific impulse of 1,820 seconds. Busek provides Hall Effect thruster configurations in circular, clustered, racetrack, and nested arrangements.

Busek Hall Effect thrusters operate with plasmas composed of various elements, from xenon to advanced high-energy solids. Busek research has developed metallic propellants for insitu resource utilization that can dramatically benefit interplanetary missions.

Busek provides complete and fully integrated Hall Effect thruster systems, including cathode, power processing unit, digital control unit, and propellant management systems.

Hall Effect thrusters require more mass flow to maintain constant power as pressure decreases. BHT-1500 thrust increases with additional mass flow, while competitor thrusters lose thrust. BHT-1500 thruster maintains near constant Isp while competitors thrusters lose 150- 200s Isp.