Abstract
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 20μN to 2mN.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 431-436 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP |
| Issue number | 516 |
| State | Published - Feb 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 5th ESA International Conference on Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems - Frascati, Italy Duration: Oct 22 2002 → Oct 25 2002 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aerospace Engineering
- Space and Planetary Science