This project presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a flight-like hydrogen peroxide propulsion system for nanosatellites (<10 kg). The system is capable of providing one orthogonal direction of maneuvering thrust and two orthogonal directions of attitude control thrust. The thruster includes a thrust block, gasket, fuel injector block, fuel injectors, and a catalyst bed. An experimental setup was designed for thruster testing within a vacuum chamber, including a torsional thrust stand and a LabVIEW data acquisition system. Experimentation in a vacuum chamber using 90% by weight hydrogen peroxide resulted in a maximum thrust of 1N and a specific impulse of 110s. The efficiency of a 3D printed and a conventionally machined thruster was found to depend on surface roughness.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Pereira, Eric Andrew
• Martin, Kevin

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-011518-181859

Advisor

• Gatsonis, Nikolaos A.
• Iannacchione, Germano S.

Year

• 2018

Center

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory-Lexington, Massachusetts Project Center - MQP

Sponsor

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Date created

• 2018-01-15

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Aerospace Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• All rights reserved