The Space Engineering Lab at Imperial College London is a state-of-the-art facility with vacuum chambers for ion propulsion testing. These vacuum chambers require hollow cathodes to be placed at the output of the tested engine to neutralize the flow.

As part of my Master's degree I designed a cathode adapted to the needs of the lab. I worked closely with the end users to understand the critical requirements of the system and ensure it would be fit for purpose. The end result is a cost- and energy-efficient design using readily available materials. The design features a simple and cheap aluminium heat-shield to boost the thermal performance of the cathode and achieve an internal temperature 1700K for a fraction of the energy consumption.