Review Article
Development of Electric and Chemical Microthrusters
Table 2
Summary of micropropulsion key performance parameters.
| | Electric micropropulsion | Chemical micropropulsion | | Single FEEP | mN-FEEP | μPPT | Bipropellant | Monopropellant |
| | Size (cm) | ~5 cm | ~10 cm | ~ mm | ~3 cm | ~2.5 cm | | ~10 cm | ~10 cm | ~7 cm | ~5 cm | | Mass (kg) | 80 g thrusters + 700 g PCU | 300g thruster + 1 kg PCU | <0.2 (4 units incl. PCU) | <0.1 | <0.06 g | | Power (W) | 0.5 (heater) | 7 (heater) | 1-2 | <3 (valves) | <1.5 | | (s) | >5,000 | >4,000 | >500 | 290–330 | 153 | | Total impulse (Ns) | >30 | >600 | 50–500 | >5000 | >2000 | | MIB (μNs) | <5 × 10−3 | <5 × 10−3 | 10–30 | | | | Thrust | 0.1–15 μN | 0.1–300 μN | ~10 μN | 1–3 N | 150–900 mN | | Propellant | Indium | Indium or Gallium | Teflon | Ethanol, RP-1;
H2O2 (87.5%) | H2O2 (87.5%) | | Feed/operating Pressure (bar) | Self-feeding | Self-feeding | N/A | 6–12 bar | 3–6 bar | | Flow/consumption Rate (g/s) | (depends on thrust) | (depends on thrust) | N/A | 0.2–1 g/s | 0.1–0.4 g/s | | Pulse rate (Hz) | >50 Hz | >50 Hz | 0.5–3 | TBD | TBD | | Pulse duration (s) | | | ~10 μs | TBD | TBD | | Exit diameter | 4–8 mm | 4–8 mm | ~ mm | 15 mm | 5 mm | | Beam power-to-thrust ratio (W/mN) | 50 | 80 | N/A | N/A | N/A | | Thrust efficiency | >50% | >50% | | | | | Technology readiness level (TRL) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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Depends on reservoir size and number of LMISs in cluster.
Depends on power supply.
Excluding PCU losses and heater.
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