Development of Gallium and Indium MEMS FEEP Thrusters using Glass Capillaries
- Paper number
IAC-18,C4,4,15,x44785
- Author
Prof. Martin Tajmar, Germany, TU Dresden
- Coauthor
Mr. Christian Boy, Germany, Dresden University of Technology (DUT) / Technische Universität Dresden
- Year
2018
- Abstract
Glass capillaries are frequently used for miniaturized propulsion systems like Colloid thrusters, as they can be easily batch manufactured. In principle, they also provide ideal geometries for liquid-metal-ion-source (LMIS) based field emission thrusters like ultra-small inner diameters that promise very high mass efficiencies. However, wetting of glass and liquid metals is not as straightforward as metal-metal bonds. After initial tests with indium and fused quartz glass capillaries that demonstrated the proof-of-concept but limited operation time, we performed an in-depth study of different glass types and liquid metal combination bonding strengths to find an optimum material combination. We then built a series of emitter prototypes and investigated their basic performance and stability over time. A dedicated propellant feeding and test module was designed and built for that purpose. This technology may leads to a further miniaturization in high performance electric propulsion systems ideally suited also for CubeSats and Nanosatellites with increased performance.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)