Vacuum test of a micro-solid propellant rocket array thruster

IEICE Electronics Express

Keiichi Hori³  Shin-ichiro Tokudome³  Hirobumi Saito³  Akihito Itoh⁴  Kazuyuki Kondo²  Masashi Watanabe⁴  Shuji Tanaka²  Hiroto Habu³  Masayoshi Esashi¹ 

[1] New Industry Creation Hatchery Center (NICHe), Tohoku University;Department of Nanomechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University;The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA);Nichiyu Giken Kogyo Co., Ltd

关键词: micro-propulsion;    micro-thruster;    solid propellant;    impulse thrust;    ignition aid;    MEMS;   

DOI  :  10.1587/elex.1.222

学科分类：电子、光学、磁材料

来源: Denshi Jouhou Tsuushin Gakkai

【 摘 要 】

References(8)Cited-By(6)A φ0.8mm micro-solid propellant rocket array thruster for simple attitude control of a 10kg class micro-spacecraft was tested in vacuum. The micro-thruster uses boron/potassium nitrate propellant (NAB), because NAB has ignition temperature as low as 500°C, and easily start to burn in vacuum. For a half of the rockets, an ignition aid (RK) was also loaded. Ignition was succeeded in vacuum with NAB + RK and NAB. The maximum impulse thrust of 4.6 × 10-4 Ns, which is approximately a half of our requirement, was obtained with NAB. Compared to NAB, NAB + RK generated lower impulse thrust. The success rate of ignition was as low as 30%, although RK was used. These results suggest that RK has no benefit for the ignition of NAB, and other kinds of ignition aid should be found.

【 授权许可】

Unknown