Simulated altitude experimental investigation for N₂O monopropellant micro-thruster

Simulated altitude experiments for two different size monopropellant micro-thrusters were conducted in a vacuum chamber with a micro thrust measurement facility. The maximal specific impulses, measured in the experiment, were 1.608 N·s/g and 1.639 N·s/g for the different size micro-thrusters, respectively. The analysis of the influence of the key design parameters on the micro-thruster performance was also carried out. Results show that the performance is influenced remarkably by the heat loss, the catalyze bed load, as well as the catalyze bed length. There exist an optimum catalyze bed load and an optimum matching of the catalyze bed load to the catalyze bed length.