NASA-173M Hall thruster
NASA Glenn's NASA-173M is a laboratory Hall-effect electric thruster developed for efficient high-specific-impulse operation across roughly 1 to 10 kW; the bounded sources document research performance, not a flight installation.
Identity
- Aliases
- NASA 173M
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Identity Level
- model
- Kind
- electric-thruster
- Name
- NASA-173M Hall thruster
- Status
- historical
Details
- Description
- NASA Glenn's NASA-173M is a laboratory Hall-effect electric thruster developed for efficient high-specific-impulse operation across roughly 1 to 10 kW; the bounded sources document research performance, not a flight installation.
- Electric Specs
- Input Power Kw Max
- 10
- Input Power Kw Min
- 1
- Specific Impulse SMax
- 3,400
- Specific Impulse SMin
- 1,500
- Propellants
- xenon
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 15, 2026 at 02:36:16 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 15, 2026 at 02:36:16 UTC
Other
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- NASA's technical memorandum identifies the nominally 8-kW NASA-173M Hall thruster and reports efficient operation from below 1 kW to nearly 10 kW and from below 1,500 s to nearly 3,400 s specific impulse.
- Publisher
- NASA Glenn Research Center
- Title
- Overview of Recent Hall Thruster Development at NASA Glenn Research Center
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- NASA's thermal memorandum documents the distinct NASA-173M v.2 high-voltage Hall-thruster design and measured 1.3-9.3 kW test range, supporting the model's technical boundary without conflating it with later variants.
- Publisher
- NASA Glenn Research Center
- Title
- Thermal Modeling of a High Voltage Hall Thruster