Application of dimethyl ether to arcjet thruster as propellant

We proposed applying dimethyl ether (DME) to arcjet thrusters and conducted experiments to demonstrate the operation, since DME has good storage properties. DME has a freezing point of −143 °C and a boiling point of −54 °C, and it liquefies at 6 atm under room temperature. Thus, DME is stored in liquid without any complex temperature management device such as cryogenic devices. DME also has little toxicity and is chemically stable. Its molecular structure contains no direct binding between carbon atoms; instead, the carbon atoms bind with an oxygen atom in between, and it is expected that soot generation is lower. We have shown that a DME arcjet thruster produced arc plasma with a discharge power ranging from 1000 to 1600 W with a resulting specific power from 20 to 40 MJ/kg. Furthermore, the plenum chamber pressure reached 160 kPa. We have thus confirmed that our DME arcjet thruster is capable of operating under almost equivalent conditions to conventional arcjet thrusters.