Micro-Discharge Micro-Thruster Technology Development

This SBIR Phase 1 effort will develop micro-discharges to power a micro-thruster rocket. The micro-discharges and arrays of these devices are made using semiconductor processing methods. Ultimately they will be very inexpensive to manufacture in largenumbers. We will explore enhancing the power deposition rate in low molecular weight gases appropriate for high thrust. We will examine the current scaling of a recently observed photo enhancement of micro-discharge current found with silicon cathodes.We will vary the incident flux on the micro-cavity from 1micro-W to 1 mW. We will test key aspects of micro-thruster fabrication. With the help of a conceptual design, we will develop a plan for Phase 2 that considers the analytical models to be used inPhase 2, fabrication issues and specific micro-thruster experimental development. This research leads to a novel class of low unit cost electrically driven micro-thrusters appropriate for space propulsion of micro-satellites or station keeping with largersatellites. Low cost and low mass will lead to less expensive DOD space vehicles. The underlying micro-discharge array platform will be used in commercial applications such as chemical processing and novel sensors.