One-Newton class thruster using arc discharge assisted combustion of nitrous oxide/ethanol bipropellant

•Designed a new green propellant thruster using nitrous oxide and ethanol with arc discharge assisted combustion.•A theoretical vacuum specific impulse is 280 s in vacuum.•At atmospheric ambient pressure, the prototyped thruster successfully produced a thrust of 0.35 N.

This paper discusses a 1-N class thruster using nitrous oxide (N2O)/ethanol bipropellant thruster using arc discharge assisted combustion. Bipropellant thruster, which is mainly used in spacecraft for orbit transfer and station keeping, utilizes toxic propellants: hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide despite relatively high specific impulse. Then a new bipropellant thruster with arc plasma assisted combustion was proposed to develop a non-toxic eco-friendly bipropellant thruster. Both N2O and ethanol, which can be stored in a liquid form, have neither toxicity nor reactivity to materials such as metal and polymer. Arcjet was utilized to initiate and sustain N2O/ethanol chemical reaction at 0.4 MPa thrust chamber pressure. A prototyped thruster shows that combustion was successfully started and sustained with the assistance of a 1-kW arc discharge. Thrust measurements at atmospheric ambient pressure yielded a specific impulse of 55 s with a characteristic exhaust velocity efficiency of 60%.