Development of a green bipropellant hydrogen peroxide thruster for attitude control on satellites

Abstract

This document describes the selection assessment of propellants for a 1-newton green bipropellant thruster for attitude control on satellites. The development of this thruster was conducted as a part of the project GRASP (Green Advanced Space Propellants) within the European FP7 research program. The green propellant combinations hydrogen peroxide (highly concentrated with 87.5%(wt.)) with kerosene or hydrogen perox- ide (87.5%(wt.)) with ethanol were identi¦ed as interesting candidates and were investigated in detail with the help of an experimental combus- tion chamber in the chemical propulsion laboratory at the Forschungs- und Technologietransfer GmbH ¡ Fotec. Based on the test results, a ¦nal selection of propellants was performed. 1