Catalyst Bed Sizing of 50 Newton Hydrogen Peroxide Monopropellant Thruster

A 50 Newton monopropellant thruster being developed for attitude control in a variety of aerospace application systems is described in this paper. Ninety percent hydrogen peroxide was selected as a propellant , since it is much less hazard ous than hydrazine. A scaled down thruster with platinum on aluminum oxide in the reaction chamber was tested to determine propellant decomposition onto a catalyst . The size of catalyst bed was determined as 3 cm in diameter and 4 cm in length from scale up method. A scaled up thruster, 50 Newton level at vacuum, wa s evaluated by decomposition efficiency based on temperature, �T, efficiency of characteristic velocity, �C* , and measurement of thrust. The performance of a scaled up

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