Nanosat Maneuvering and Orbital Transfer Stage

The proposed innovation is amodular,high-performance orbital transfer stage(OTS)vehicleforNanosats andMicrosatslaunched as secondary payloadsand require maneuvering to their desired orbits.The OTS has a modular design,andcanaccommodatepayloads ranging from5kg 3U size Nanosats to >50kgMicrosatsize vehicles. The propulsionsystemuses hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) fuel with nitrous oxide (N2O). These“green propellants”thataresufficientlysafefor ridesharing,willprovidedensity impulse over 10-15% higher than a hydrazine system,andarecapable ofnear-impulsive ΔV maneuvers to support launch vehicle collision avoidance operations, final operational orbit insertion, or tactical inclination/plane change maneuvers.The proposed system leverages additive manufacturing as the primary fabrication process incorporatingmodulartank and thruster configurations with integral Reaction Control Subsystem.Basic Propulsion “modules” can be combined to enable various size vehicles and missions. The basic concept for the OTS “core” configuration is also amenable to integrating the hybrid propulsion directly into a Nanosat bus.Theproposed solutionwillallow lower cost access to space than existingcommercial monopropellant systemliquid stages,usesa fraction of the power of electric propulsion systems, and will be much safer than systems that use toxic and/or explosive propellants.The OTS will have complete capability (power, guidance and navigation, etc.) to position the Payload spacecraft into their desired orbits.