Impact Analysis of Hall Thrusters on Satellite Antenna Performance

A geometrical optics ray-tracing code has been developed to study the effect of plasma thrusters on communication satellite antennas. This code has flexible three-dimensional geometry and a friendly web-based interface. A study is reported where a thruster is directed perpendicular to a 1-m reflector antenna 0.5 m away. The thruster is translated away from the reflector, and the main lobe attenuation, H-plane main lobe full width, and cross polarization are analyzed at 0.2-m increments. These studies are done at 5 and 10 GHz.