Micro Propulsion under High Altitude Space Environments

우주진공환경에서의 마이크로 추진

From the previous researches about flow characteristic of micro-nozzle, we found that viscosity and back pressure induced heavy losses in micro nozzle. To overcome thess losses, we began to study new conceptual micro propulsion system that is thermal transpiration based micro propulsion system. It has no moving parts and can pump the gaseous propellant by temperature gradient only (cold to hot). Most of previous research on thermal transpiration is in its early stage and mainly studied for application to small vacuum facility or gas chromatography in ambient condition using nanoporous material like aerogel. In this study, we focus on basic research of propulsion system based on thermal transpiration using polyimide material in vacuum conditions.