This work focuses on the development of an additively manufactured chemical micro-propulsion system suitable for primary propulsion or attitude control for a nanosatellite. Due to the limitations and expense of current micropropulsion technologies, few nanosatel-lites with propulsion have been launched to date, but the availability of such a propulsion system would allow for new nanosatellite mission concepts, such as deep space exploration, maneuvering in low gravity environments and formation flying. In this work, numerical and experimental methods are used to develop a dual mode monopropellant/bipropellant microthruster that uses a novel catalysis scheme and preliminary experiments were performed to validate the concept. This micropropulsion system is designed to be fabricated using a combination of additively manufactured and commercial off the shelf parts and use non-toxic fuels, making it a low-cost and safe option for future nanosatellite missions.
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