This paper describes design and experiments of a 1-N class liquefied-gas bipropellant thruster using nitrous oxide (N_2O) and dimethyl ether (DME). Liquefied gas has preferable characteristics for thruster propellant; propellants can be stored in a liquid form and be injected into thrust chambers in a gaseous form simply by adjusting pressure and temperature. Most liquefied gases have relatively low freezing point, which can eliminate complex temperature management systems. In this study, N_2O and DME are used as oxidizer and fuel, respectively. Both liquefied gases are neither toxic nor reactive to materials such as metals and rubbers. The bipropellant provides a theoretical vacuum specific impulse of 287 s. A 1-N class N_2O/DME thruster was prototyped and tested in order to investigate performance. Thrust measurement at the atmospheric ambient pressure showed that the thruster yielded a thrust of 0.54-N and a specific impulse of 90 s, whereas the designed thrust and specific impulse were 1.0 N and 160 s.
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