Session
Technical Session III: Advanced Technologies I
Abstract
New high-performance, carbon-fiber reinforced polymer material allows additive manufacturing to produce pressure vessels capable of high pressures (thousands of pounds per square inch). This advancement in turn allows integral hybrid propulsion which is revolutionary for both CubeSats and additively-manufactured spacecraft. Hybrid propulsion offers simplicity as compared to bipropellant liquid propulsion, significantly better safety compared to solid or monopropellant hydrazine propulsion, and much better performance than cold-gas or hydrogen peroxide monopropellant propulsion. The safety benefits are especially important for CubeSats because they are generally secondary payloads whose impact on primary payload operations must be minimized. The possibility of safe, highperformance, high thrust propulsion opens up a huge variety of possible mission scenarios previously unavailable to CubeSat spacecraft. In addition, a “printed in” cold gas attitude control system that draws its propellant from the main thruster’s oxidizer tank allows spacecraft pointing, midcourse corrections, and proximity operations with little reduction to the available spacecraft volume. With the advancement in additively manufactured propulsion, CubeSat-sized spacecraft can offer real responsive space capabilities never before possible.
Presentation Slides
Additively Manufactured Propulsion System
New high-performance, carbon-fiber reinforced polymer material allows additive manufacturing to produce pressure vessels capable of high pressures (thousands of pounds per square inch). This advancement in turn allows integral hybrid propulsion which is revolutionary for both CubeSats and additively-manufactured spacecraft. Hybrid propulsion offers simplicity as compared to bipropellant liquid propulsion, significantly better safety compared to solid or monopropellant hydrazine propulsion, and much better performance than cold-gas or hydrogen peroxide monopropellant propulsion. The safety benefits are especially important for CubeSats because they are generally secondary payloads whose impact on primary payload operations must be minimized. The possibility of safe, highperformance, high thrust propulsion opens up a huge variety of possible mission scenarios previously unavailable to CubeSat spacecraft. In addition, a “printed in” cold gas attitude control system that draws its propellant from the main thruster’s oxidizer tank allows spacecraft pointing, midcourse corrections, and proximity operations with little reduction to the available spacecraft volume. With the advancement in additively manufactured propulsion, CubeSat-sized spacecraft can offer real responsive space capabilities never before possible.
