Recent test results of a warm gas pumped monopropellant propulsion system

摘要

Updated test results from system level testing of an advanced pumped hydrazine propulsion system are presented. The results are from testing the next iteration of a system previously tested in 1991 through 1993. This novel propulsion system is the central part of a miniature maneuvering vehicle which has been presented and discussed in various configurations in previous papers and recently successfully flight tested on the ASTRID rocket. Noteworthy design features include flight packaging of the propulsion system (excluding tanks), enabled by the use of a flight design thrust control valve assembly and a miniature gas generator (GG) fuel control valve (13 gms). The pumped propulsion system is a significant achievement in state-of-the-art hydrazine system performance, achieved largely through the use of free-piston warm gas pumps 3.6.7. The pumps enable high performance by using low pressure and thus light weight propellant tank(s). A GG provides warm gas to both drive the pumps and for tank repressurization via a pressure reducing valve. The pumps boost the fuel pressure from tank pressure (60 psig) up to 1200 psig. The high pressure fuel is fed to the light weight high performance thrusters (56 lbf thrust) and to the GG, regulated to 960 psi. The recent testing includes a 60-second steady-state firing and dual thruster firing at sea level, in addition to boostrap and pulse mode firings. At the completion of this testing the system operation was nominal and further life margin testing is currently under-way. Additionally, future work includes transfer of this technology and its performance benefits to civilian/commercial launch vehicle staging.