Development of the 1kW class hydrazine arcjet

Arcjet propulsion system offers significant propellant savings for satellite because of its relatively high specific impulse compare with traditional chemical propulsion system. To satisfy the requirement of orbit control for LEO satellite and NSSK for GEO satellite, an engineering model of 1kW hydrazine arcjet system is under developing in BICE (Beijing Institute of Control Engineering). The development program includes design and fabricating of a hydrazine arcjet system and its 500 hours endurance test, which will be complete in December, 2009. According to mission analysis results, performance of arcjet system is specified, which includes thrust of 75~150mN and specific impulse of 4.5~5.5N·s/g. On the basis of previous research in BICE, the 1kW arcjet thruster has been designed and fabricated. The first round of design, fabricate and performance test has completed. For the security consideration, simulated hydrazine (mixture of Nitrogen and ammonia) is used as propellant in currently experiments. Some important parameter, such as specific impulse, thrust and efficiency of the thrust, are obtained. With the mass flow rate of 18mg/s to 30mg/s, thrust is in the range of 100mN to 150mN and specific impulse is around 5N·s/g. And the performance is expected to be improved in the next round experiment with anhydrous hydrazine as propellant, for its heat producing in decomposition reaction.