Designing and Commercialization of Porous Emitter Electrospray Thruster for Space Applications

A low power porous electrospray thruster propulsion system is being developed and tested by a consortium based in the UK and Austria. The consortium, led by AVS UK in collaboration with University of Southampton (UoS) and RHP Technology, is working on an updated design of the porous electrospray thruster technology previously developed at UoS. The updated design focuses on achieving higher thrust, with a design suitable for high volume production, meeting the rapidly growing micro- and nano-satellite market demand. Within the project, UoS is assisting with the thruster design and leading the experimental campaign. RHP Technology is creating the high-precision, manufacturing procedures for the emitter arrays and the porous electrode, and AVS UK is designing the thruster propulsion unit and High Voltage Power Processing Unit (HV PPU), as well as leading exploitation of the thruster for future market opportunities. The research is focused on three aspects. Firstly, the project is developing a porous electrospray thruster design that more closely matches the requirements of the nano- and micro- satellite propulsion sector. Secondly, the design of the high voltage PPU has been modified to operate with the new requirements from the updated thruster design. Thirdly, the emitter manufacturing has been changed from the use of CNC manufacturing towards the use of stereolithography. This paper describes the progress on these three aspects of the project, with a particular focus on the verification that the single emitters tested match our required performance. Our initial single emitter tests demonstrate promising performance. A new single emitter demonstrated reasonably high emission current after onset, with maximum values of around 10 µA at 2250 V reached. Assuming a 50 % monomer-dimer mix, the estimated thrust and specific impulse are approximately ~0.79 µN and ~3700 s, from a single emitter. Given the 313 emitters that we are designing for in our standard arrays, this will provide 247 µN across an array