PPS®1350
Hall Effect Thruster
The PPS®1350 Hall Effet plasma thruster draws on Safran’s long experience with electric propulsion. It is designed for orbital transfer, station keeping and deorbiting satellites and other spacecraft. In particular, the PPS 1350 was the primary engine on ESA’s lunar probe, Smart-1, launched in 2003 by an Ariane 5 rocket. This mission was completed in September 2006.
PPS®1350 FEATURES
DESIGNED FOR ORBIT-TOPPING AND STATION-KEEPING
40% WEIGHT SAVING VERSUS CONVENTION PROPULSION
EXCELLENT THRUST-TO-ELECTRICAL POWER RATIO
VERY HIGH PERFORMANCE
The major advantage of the PPS®1350 is of course
its very high specific impulse, which allows
significant weight savings versus platforms using
conventional chemical propulsion. It also offers an
excellent thrust-to-electrical power ratio, which
enables reducing operating time or the number of
thrusters needed.
IN-ORBIT EXPERIENCE
The PPS®1350 amply demonstrated its capabilities
during ESA’s Smart-1 probe’s mission from Earth orbit
into orbit around the Moon: 5,000 hours cumulated
operating time in space
Four of these thrusters handle North/South station-keeping duties on the Alphasat satellite, launched in
2013.
The PPS®1350 was selected by Space Systems
Loral in 2016, and will be used on the company’s
communications satellites for station-keeping, and for
part of the orbit-topping operation.
