Enabling High Performance Green Propulsion for SmallSats

The inherent handling safety of green propellants is particularly facilitating for smallsats. Commonly manifested as one among a number of auxiliary payloads, simplicity of smallsat pre-launch operations is critical to maintaining a practical launch campaign. Moreover, trades have continually shown the increased density-specific impulse potentially offered by advanced propellants is enabling for a significant class of microsatellite missions (e.g. ESPA) where volumetric constraints preclude the use of conventional propellants such as hydrazine. The culmination of over two decades of research and development, NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission has recently completed hot-fire testing of prototype flight-design 1 N and 22 N green monopropellant thrusters operating on and AFRLdeveloped green propellant known as AF M315E. Scheduled for an inaugural on-orbit demonstration aboard an ESPA-launched microsatellite bus mid-2016, the GPIM thrusters and propulsion system represent the first flightready low-toxicity alternative to comparable hydrazine technologies, providing similar flexibility to operate at any duty cycle while delivering 50% greater density-specific impulse. NOMENCLATURE