Research & Development

Chemical Propulsion

Mission scenarios which require higher thrust than achievable with existing Electric Propulsion (EP) systems (µPPT Seite, FEEP Seite) rely on chemical propulsion systems.

Particular attention in the field of chemical propulsion is focused on the development of miniaturized systems able to produce thrust in the low single digit Newton range. This is partially due to the increasing application of small satellites. Additionally, low thrust chemical propulsion are also intended for attitude control of large satellites (>500 kg). Miniaturized systems offer not only highly accurate impulse bits for fine-positioning (e.g for formation flight) but in combination with their small thrust and longer pulse durations allow more efficient thrust generation.

AIT, under contract from ESA, is developing two chemical propulsion systems: A monopropellant thruster (see fig. 1) (Monopropellant Thruster Page) and a bipropellant thruster (see fig. 2) (Bipropellant Thruster Page). Both systems operate with so-called "Green Propellants", i.e. propellant with none or negligible toxic or carcinogenic risk. Beside of the obvious health benefits for everybody who handles a propulsion system operating with green propellants, it was also shown that the utilization of green propellants results in major financial savings both during development and operation.

Furthermore, such systems will be required for future Mars landings. Only the usage of green propellants will ensure that the Mars environment will not be contaminated with toxic exhausts (e.g. Phoenix Mars Lander which uses hydrazine thrusters) or nitrogen. The latter is important to safely analyze the Martian soil for traces of biological activities where nitrogen is usually a by-product.

Fig 1: Monopropellant thruster during a test campaign


Fig 2: Bipropellant thruster during a test campaign