• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.24-33
• /
• 2008

A 50 Newton monopropellant thruster being developed for attitude control in a variety of aerospace application systems is described in this paper. A scaled down thruster with platinum on aluminum oxide in the reaction chamber was tested to determine the catalyst capacity. A scaled up thruster which was designed and fabricated using data obtained from a small scale device was evaluated by its decomposition efficiency based on the temperature, the efficiency of characteristic velocity, and the measurement of thrust. The performance of a scaled up thruster was marked by a measured thrust of 42 Newton, 98 % efficiency of the characteristic velocity, a specific impulse of 123 sec at sea level.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.262-267
• /
• 2012

For DACS system which controls pintle position to change nozzle throat area, one actuator has been used for each modulatable pintle thruster. This ten actuator system drove to complex system structure and complicated control mechanism. In order to overcome this shortcomings, international patents were reviewed, analysed and presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.202-202
• /
• 2016

홀 플라즈마 엔진은 인공위성의 궤도유지 및 자세제어 등의 임무수행이나 우주선의 심우주 활용에 있어 필수적인 핵심 우주 부품이다. 홀추력기 연구개발의 최근 큰 관심사는 추력기의 장시간 운전성 확보 및 방전효율 향상이다. 최근 고리형 홀추력기에서 방전 영역 내 플라즈마와 유전체 벽 간의 충돌을 줄임으로써 전극 손상 및 전자온도 손실을 감소시키기 위한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 특히 전자석 코일을 활용해 방전 채널 벽면과 평행한 방향의 자기장을 형성하여 플라즈마와 유전체 벽 간의 상호작용을 감소시키는 연구들이 소개되고 있으며, 이러한 방법을 자기차폐(magnetic shielding)라 한다. 본 연구에서는 자기차폐 개념이 적용된 방전 소모전력 500 W급 고리형 홀추력기의 방전 및 추력 발생 특성을 연구하였다. 자기장구조 제어를 통해 유전체 벽과 플라즈마 간 상호작용을 감소시킨 결과, 500 V 수준의 방전 전압에서도 유전체 벽에서의 이차전자 발생에 의한 방전전류의 급격한 증가없이 안정적인 방전이 가능하였으며, 이러한 방전 형태는 기존의 자기차폐 개념이 적용되지 않은 일반 고리형 홀 추력기에서 구현하기 어려운 방전 상태이다. 추력기의 자기장 구조 최적화 조건에서 제논 가스 방전을 통해 얻은 최대 추력은 $22{\pm}1mN$, 비추력 $2200{\pm}70s$, 양극효율 $51{\pm}2%$로 매우 우수한 성능을 보여 주었다

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.564-564
• /
• 2013

홀 추력기는 플라즈마를 이용하는 전기추력기 중 하나로, 인공위성의 자세제어, 궤도수정, 궤도천이 뿐만아니라 행성간 임무수행을 위한 우주선의 엔진으로 사용된다. 홀 추력기 채널 내부에 발생된 Xe 이온들은 양극과 음극 사이에 존재하는 전기장에 의해 가속되어 추력을 발생시킨다. 이때 Xe 이온들은 자기장에 의해 감금된 전자와 중성 Xe 원자 사이의 충돌에 의해 발생하며, 실험적 및 이론적 연구를 통해 단일 전하를 띤 이온(Xe II)뿐만 아니라 다중 전하(Xe III 등)를 띤 이온도 생성되는 것으로 알려져 있다. 이온의 전하량 비율은 홀 추력기의 추력효율 및 연료효율에 영향을 미치며, 다중 전하를 띤 이온의 높은 에너지는 채널벽의 침식문제를 야기하는 등 홀 추력기 이온빔의 전하량 분석 연구는 물리적 연구측면 뿐만아니라 실용적인 측면에서도 매우 중요하다. 본 연구에서는 자기장과 그에 수직한 방향의 전기장에서 발생하는 로렌츠 힘을 이용하여 이온의 전하량을 분석할 수 있는 $E{\times}B$ 탐침을 설계 및 개발하였다. 개발된 $E{\times}B$ 탐침은 70 mm 길이의 집속기와 $148{\times}138{\times}90mm$의 본체, 40 mm길이의 콜렉터로 구성된다. $E{\times}B$ 탐침 설계에 가장 중요한 균일한 자기장 설계를 위해 전산모사를 통해 최적화 작업을 진행하였으며, 실험을 위한 진단계의 최적화와 초기 실험결과가 발표될 예정이다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2011.11a
• /
• pp.18-21
• /
• 2011

In this study, basic research on the pressure control using driven pintle of modulatable thruster is presented. For this purpose, pintle thruster and pintle shape was developed. The actuator model was selected by calculating pintle load using Fluent software. Preliminary unsteady experimental results show that huge pressure oscillation is occurred as the pintle approach toward nozzle wall. From the preliminary experimental results, we could see possibility of pressure control of the modulatable thruster.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.77-84
• /
• 2006

With the development of micro/nano spacecraft, concepts of micro propulsion are introduced for orbit transfer and drag compensation as well as attitude control. Micro solid propellant thruster has been attention as one of possible solution for micro thruster. In this paper, micro solid propellant thruster is introduced and research on basic components of a micro solid propellant thruster is reported. Micro Pt igniter was fabricated through negative patterning and quantitative effect of geometry was estimated. The characteristic of HTPB/AP solid propellant was investigated to measure the homing velocity. A combustion chamber was fabricated by means of anisotropic etching of photosensitive glass. Finally, micro solid propellant thrusters having various geometries were fabricated and tested.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.9
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2003

An attitude control system using reaction thrusters for the upper stage of a launch vehicle is considered. The thruster configuration (position and direction) determines control system response, fuel consumption, effective torque and system fault tolerance. We propose a procedure for finding the optimal thruster configuration with desired control effectiveness over the range of selected torque commands. An optimization technique called Particle Swarm Optimization is used for the numerical experiments. The validity of the solution is checked through computer simulations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.581-586
• /
• 2008

The MEMS solid propellant thrusters have very low thrust level for applying to the propulsion system of micro/nano satellites or the side jet thruster of smart bombs. In this research, the fabrication possibility of planar type MEMS solid propellant thrusters that have enlarged burning surface area was examined and the safety of the structure of thruster during the firing test was confirmed. The performance of a micro igniter which is the key component of the MEMS solid propellant thruster was estimated by the ANSYS Icepak and evaluated by the experiment. Finally, the thrust was measured by the micro force sensor. The levels of thrust were 300, 600 mN in the case of K=15, 20.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.43 no.8
• /
• pp.722-730
• /
• 2015

Drive mechanism of multi-axis pintle thrusters for DCS(Divert Control System) was designed to meet the needs of minimizing the number of driving motors. In this study, preliminary model was designed in order to implement appropriate pressure control and thrust distribution. Based on the preliminary model study, the drive mechanism for DCS multi-axis pintle thrusters using piston was designed and evaluated by using AMESim software. Results show that three driving motors are enough to actuate four pintle thrusters.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.186-195
• /
• 2005

This paper deals with attitude control design for a thruster system which is mainly used as a control system of space vehicles. Attitude controllers are designed based on a simple blowing-down thruster system structure. In order to consider severe time-delay effects of the thruster system during controller design, the control design problem is defined based on the corresponding limit cycle analysis. Optimal roll controllers and optimal pitch/yaw controllers are resulted from co-evolutionary optimum design processes for each flight phase. The control performances are verified by computer simulations.