Monofilament Vaporization Propulsion (MVP) System

Monofilament Vaporization Propulsion (MVP) is a new propulsion technology targeted at secondary payload applications. It does not compromise on performance while using safe, clean, propellant without storage or handling concerns. Potential issues with liquid propellants such as freezing and over-pressurization in the space environment do not apply to MVP as its propellant is a solid. MVP harnesses technology used in 3d printing applications to feed propellant into proven electrothermal propulsion technology developed by CU Aerospace to provide a safe and reliable system with high performance. The MVP concept accepts a variety of filament propellants, the leading candidate being a commercially available polymer. This should provide 900 N-s total impulse with a 1U (10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm) system. This imparts 250 m/s Delta-V to a standard 4 kg, 3U CubeSat. Target power consumption for MVP is less than 15 W, and the target price for MVP is $30K in order to encourage use on low budget missions.