Abstract:The microwave ion electric thruster has the advantages of small size, no hot cathode, fast starting time, and long working life. It is very suitable for the field of space propulsion. The M5 type microwave ion electric thruster is a one-hundred-watt electric thruster developed by shanghai aerospace control technology institute. In order to verify the life of the M5 microwave ion thruster, a life assessment experiment of about 10000h was carried out. During the experiment, the working performance parameters and starting performance of the thruster were tested, and the working state of the thruster was judged by analyzing the test data. Experiments show that after the M5 microwave ion thruster has been worked continuously for 10,000 hours, the performance indicators meet the design requirements, and the starting performance is not significantly reduced by 10,000 repeated starts. It proves that the life of the M5 microwave ion thruster exceeds 10,000h, and the number of repeated starts is greater than 10,000.