Bimodal Ion-Chemical Thruster System

A top candidate ldquo;greenrdquo; monopropellant proposed as a safe replacement for hydrazine in spacecraft systems is also shown in tests to be a high performance propellant for ion electrospray thrusters. The proposed effort is to take full advantage of these remarkable characteristics to develop an efficient bimodal ion-chemical thruster system using a common propellant supply tank. This proposal responds directly to the Dual Mode Propulsion focus area in the T2.03 STTR topic.nbsp;The expected mass and volume savings, increased propellant use efficiency and the added flexibility in thrusting options (high thrust with moderate Isp and lower thrust with high Isp) will significantly augment the operational propulsion and attitude control ranges, especially in small spacecraft applications.Phase I demonstrated and tested an efficient propellant management system interfacing the high pressure monopropellant tank with the ion electrospray thruster arrays. This allows the development in Phase II of a complete protoflight system, including multiple thruster arrays and control electronics, that can be integrated into a space mission. The Phase II development will leverage the existing ion electrospray thruster technology, and integrate it with the new propellant management system to provide a multi-thruster ion propulsion system. The assembly will be designed to interface with an existing compact chemical thrusternbsp;to achieve a complete proto-flight bi-modal propulsion system, ready for integration and flight testing on a space platform.nbsp;