Flight Model Development and Ground Demonstration of Water Resistojet Propulsion System for CubeSats

Nishii, Keita; Asakawa, Jun; Kikuchi, Kosei; Akiyama, Mitoshi; Wang, Qihang; Murohara, Masaya; Ataka, Yasuho; Koizumi, Hiroyuki; Funase, Ryu; Komurasaki, Kimiya

doi:10.2322/tjsass.63.141

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…41) A resistojet thruster propelled by water was installed on the spacecraft and was in charge of generating the thrust. 41,42) This part assumes the substitution of the hybrid thruster proposed in this study for the resistojet thruster. Two types of comparisons were made.…”

Section: Feasibility Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The former is for estimating the thrust and the latter for the specific impulse. The mass, mass flow rate of the water, and specific impulse of the water resistojet thruster were quoted from Nishii et al 42) As for the hybrid thruster, a mass mixture ratio of 1.25 and equilibrium flow was assumed for both cases of wire diameters of 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm. The resistojet thruster was composed of three main parts: a tank, a vaporizer, and nozzles.…”

Section: Feasibility Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The case study conducted based on the reference mission revealed that the hybrid thruster has sufficient propulsion performance to bring the required delta-V to small spacecraft in a short time using a restricted propellant mass. 39,41) 14.6 14.6 14.0 Mass of mechanical cable reel, kg 39) 0.6 0.6 -Diameter of Mg wire, mm 0.5 0.8 -Total mass of propellant, kg 42) 1.20…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feasibility Study of a Hybrid Thruster using Wire-Shaped Magnesium and Water for Application to Small Spacecraft

Akiyama

Nishii

Mannami

et al. 2021

Trans. Japan Soc. Aero. S Sci.

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High thrust propulsion systems that can be used in small spacecraft are urgently needed to expand the use of small spacecraft. This study proposes a hybrid thruster for small spacecraft using wire-shaped magnesium as a fuel and water as an oxidizer. "Hybrid thruster" means that the in-space propulsion system generates thrust using a chemical reaction between a solid fuel and a vapor oxidizer, such as those utilized for hybrid rockets. Both magnesium and water are very safe, highly available, and very storable. To assess the feasibility of a hybrid thruster, we carried out experiments utilizing magnesium-wire combustion in water vapor at a pressure lower than the atmosphere, and estimated the input power for ignition, ignitability, and the average magnesium mass consumption rate. Then, propulsion performances were calculated using the experimental results, which show there is an input power of 2-3 W, with higher ignitability and a lower average mass consumption rate for thinner magnesium wires. The calculated specific impulse achieved its maximum at 323 s, with a mass mixture ratio of 1.25. At that mass mixture ratio, the calculated thrust using magnesium wires having diameters of 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm was 49.8 mN and 68.5 mN, respectively. Additionally, the applicability of the hybrid thruster was shown through a case study considering an existing deep-space misson.

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Section: Feasibility Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Feasibility Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feasibility Study of a Hybrid Thruster using Wire-Shaped Magnesium and Water for Application to Small Spacecraft

Akiyama

Nishii

Mannami

et al. 2021

Trans. Japan Soc. Aero. S Sci.

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“…Water is another candidate for condensable propellants and has unique affinities for small spacecraft [21][22][23][24][25]. The primary benefit of water is its inexhaustible abundance on Earth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration and experimental characteristics of a water-vapor Hall thruster

et al. 2023

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Water is an attractive candidate for condensable propellants owing to its availability, handleability, and sustainability. This study proposes the use of water vapor as a propellant for a low-power Hall thruster, and experimentally demonstrates the feasibility of this proposal. Based on the performance estimation from the plume diagnostics, a thrust-to-power ratio of 19 mN/kW, specific impulse of 550–860 s, and anode efficiency of 5–8 % were obtained at an anode power of 233–358 W. From further efficiency analysis, the mass utilization efficiency of water was found to be the most deteriorated among the internal efficiencies compared to the conventional xenon propellant, which was consistent with the expectations from a small discharge current oscillation, large beam divergence, and increase in low-energy ions. Moreover, additional power loss via reactions unique to polyatomic molecules was indicated by evaluation of the ionization cost. In this experiment, the mass utilization efficiency was improved with an increase in the anode voltage from 200 to 240 V without degradation of the power utilization. This suggests that operating at a higher voltage is more suitable for a water-vapor Hall thruster.

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“…Its safety and cost-effectiveness are consistent with the concepts of CubeSat: short-term and low-cost development. Several water propulsion systems have been developed, such as resistojet thrusters [29][30][31][32], water electrolysis thrusters, water PPTs [33,34], and a water ion thruster [22]. Among those, ion thrusters have strong potential to deliver a high total impulse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water and xenon ECR ion thruster—comparison in global model and experiment

Nakagawa

Koizumi

Naito

et al. 2020

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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Gridded ion thrusters are one of the most commonly used types of electric propulsion, and alternative propellants have been studied for miniature ion thrusters to meet the demand of propulsion systems for micro-/nano-satellites. Water is a candidate as an alternative non-pressurized propellant for a CubeSat thruster. It is consistent with the CubeSat concept of short-term and low-cost development. In this paper, the characteristics of a miniature water ion thruster were compared with those of a xenon one using a global model and experiments. The dependence of the performance on the mass flow rate and the input microwave power was examined, and the effects of dissociation and doubly charged ions were directly measured by a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The estimates on the model were compared against experimental results for both propellants, and the performance of the thruster operating on xenon propellant was compared to the performance operating on water propellant. In the comparison between the estimates and the experimental results, the two differences were discussed: the one between water and xenon and the other from the experimental result in both cases. A performance decrease in the propellant utilization efficiency and the specific impulse cannot be avoided when using water as a propellant in an ion thruster. However, the ion production cost did not increase, and it showed the capability of water ion thruster for CubeSat application taking advantage of safety, low cost, non-pressurized system, and human-friendliness of water when used as a propellant.

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Flight Model Development and Ground Demonstration of Water Resistojet Propulsion System for CubeSats

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Feasibility Study of a Hybrid Thruster using Wire-Shaped Magnesium and Water for Application to Small Spacecraft

Feasibility Study of a Hybrid Thruster using Wire-Shaped Magnesium and Water for Application to Small Spacecraft

Demonstration and experimental characteristics of a water-vapor Hall thruster

Water and xenon ECR ion thruster—comparison in global model and experiment

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