Design, fabrication, and thrust prediction of solid propellant microthrusters for space application

Abstract

With the development of microspacecraft technology micropropulsion concepts are introduce for course correction, orbit insertion as well as attitude control of the microspacecraft. In this context, we have introduced a new concept of MEMS based technology microthruster responding to the spatial constraints and MEMS characteristics. The originality and advantages of these new thrusters is the use of only one solid propellant stored in a small tank micromachined in a ceramic or silicon substrate and the possibility of fabricating arrays of N addressable independently microthrusters in the same chip. The thrust force generated can be set from a few (mu) N to a few 150mN by geometrical and dimensional considerations. Fabrication and assembly of array of 16 microthrusters proved the technological feasibility and the functioning performances of this new concept of small scale thrusters.