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Hall Thruster Channel Erosion & Lifetime

Simulate boron-nitride discharge-channel wall erosion in a Hall effect thruster: ion sputtering eats away the ceramic wall over a mission, and this predicts end-of-life the way SPT-100-class thrusters are actually qualified.

Space & Astronomy3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⚡ Plasma ⇄ 2D version

Every Hall effect thruster — from the SPT-100 to the krypton-fed units flying on Starlink satellites — eventually dies not because it runs out of propellant, but because ion bombardment sputters away the ceramic discharge-channel wall until it breaches. This simulator models that wear-out process directly: a Bohdansky-type sputtering yield law combined with the axial plasma-potential and ion-current profile inside the channel produces a real erosion groove that deepens over simulated mission hours, with live readouts for erosion depth, remaining wall thickness and a projected end-of-life. Adjust discharge voltage, mass flow rate and propellant to see how each operating choice trades thrust and efficiency against how long the thruster survives.

⚙ Under the hood

Watch ion sputtering erode a Hall thruster's ceramic discharge-channel wall over a simulated mission, with a live-computed end-of-life prediction — the same failure mode that limits SPT-100-class and Starlink electric-propulsion thrusters.

Hall thrusterion propulsionsputtering erosionplasmaspacecraft lifetime

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install