Welcome to the Propulsion Research Center The Propulsion Research Center is your resource for: Cost-effective fundamental and applied research Nationally recognized faculty and students State-of-the-art test facilities Innovative solutions Directory Students Capabilities Facilities News Contact Us UAH master’s student Ethan Hopping and UAH professor Dr. Gabe Xu partnered to design and test a Hall-effect thruster with a 3-D printed channel and propellant distributor. Spotlight Ethan Hopping uses 3-D printing to successfully build and test Hall-effect thruster Depending on the mission, electric propulsion systems like Hall-effect-thrusters can reduce the mass of propellant required by a factor of 10 or more as compared with chemical rockets.