A cold gas micropropulsion system for attitude control, installed on the one liter nanosatellite URSA MAIOR, is described. The system uses nitrogen gas stored in a tank as a propellant, improving the specific impulse by heating the gas before it reaches the expansion nozzle. The most innovative components of the system are the microthrusters, manufactured on a few millimeters size silicon chip, which allows to obtain very low thrust levels at a high efficiency. The micropropulsion system design, integration and performance evaluation are discussed in the paper. The theoretical performance is compared with ground testing results, showing a very good agreement. The system can be scaled to the needs of different missions, giving thrusts ranging from 20 my N to 2mN.
The nanosatellite URSA MAIOR micropropulsion system
2003
6 Seiten, 8 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Stickstoff , Treibstoff , Silicium , Lageregelung , Satellit , Raketenantrieb , Schubkraft
The Nanosatellite Ursa Maior Micropropulsion System
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