A monopropellant hydrazine MEMS thruster for attitude control of nanosatellites

Abstract

This paper highlights the design and development of catalytic type mono-propellant hydrazine microthruster for space applications. In the process of development of microthruster the modeling & simulation of different parts/modules have been considered. Design of inlet feed channel and exit nozzle with different layout have been done to achieve required specifications. Considering different fluid resistive forces acting on the microchannel some theoretical calculation coupled with simulation has been done for optimization of inlet channel and exit nozzle geometry. The nozzle configuration is critical for high thrust vector and the direction accuracy. For this various types of nozzles have been studied for pressure & temperature distribution. Some preliminary experiments have been done to explore the compatibility of hydrazine with MEMS material. In this study the etch characteristics of different thin film materials in hydrazine have been presented.