• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.601-604
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• 2004

Precise position and attitude control of pico-satellite requires huge number of impulses of the order of 10$^{-6}$ Ns. MEMS solid rocket array is a promising propulsion system but the higher degree of miniaturization causes unreliable operation mainly due to quenching. In order to breakthrough this situation, a novel design of solid micro-rocket is proposed, which generates tiny impulses repetitively from a single rocket not from array. This unique micro-rocket is based on the utilization of quenching, which causes propellant reaction to sustain only in a small area. A test chip of a micro solid propellant tank and micro heater array is fabricated and ignition test is conducted. Obtained results show the feasibility of this concept and future direction of this quenching-based propulsion is discussed.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.85-93
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• 2006

The trend of miniaturization has been applied to the research of rockets to develop prototypes of micro rockets. In this paper, the development of a web-integrated prototyping system for three-dimensional micro rockets, and the results of combustion tests are discussed. The body of rocket was made of 6061 aluminum cylinder by lathe process. The three-dimensional micro nozzles were fabricated on the same aluminum by using micro endmills with ${\phi}100{\mu}m{sim}{\phi}500{\mu}m$ diameter. Two types of micro nozzle were fabricated and compared for performance. The total mass of the rockets was 7.32 g and that of propellant (gun powder) was 0.65 g. The thrust-to-weight ratio was between 1.58 and 1.74, and the flight test with 45 degree launch angle from the ground resulted in $46\;m{\sim}53\;m$ of horizontal flight distance. In addition, ABS housing for the micro machined rocket was fabricated using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). A web-based design, fabrication, and test system for micro nozzles was proposed to integrate the distributed hardware resources. Test data was sent to the designer via the same web server for the faster feedback to the rocket designer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.393-397
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• 2006

In this study, combustion characteristics of solid propellants using sorbitol and potassium nitrate were found out. Burning rate was calculated with several combustion experiments, also specific impulse and characteristic exhaust velocity were compared with theoretical value. Thrust measured with thrust measurement system using plate spring. Mixture ratio of propellants was varied in experiments, also combustion characteristics of solid propellants which consulted experimental results was used micro solid rocket design having 1mm nozzle throat.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.32-37
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• 2003

The trend of miniaturization has been applied to the research on micro rockets resulting in prototype rockets fabricated by MEMS processes. In this paper, the development of three-dimensional micro rockets using micro milling as well as the results of combustion and flight tests are discussed. The body of rocket was made of 6061 aluminum cylinder. The three-dimensional micro nozzles were fabricated on brass by micro endmill with 127${\mu}m$ diameter. Two different micro nozzles were fabricated, one with 1.0mm of throat diameter and the other with 0.5mm. The total mass of rocket was 7.32g and that of propellant was 0.65g. The thrust-to-weight ratio was between 1.58 and 1.74, and the flight test with 45 degree launch angle form the ground resulted in 46m-53m of horizontal flight distance

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• v.y2005m4
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• pp.39-43
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• 2005

In this paper, we describe the contents of the achievement of basic experiments for manufacturing and evaluating a micro-rocket using solid propellant, as the device of the micro thrust generator which can be used for attitude control of satellites. We try to analyze performance of the rocket through visualization of the motor jet, and adopt various ignition methods to obtain confidence in ignition problem. For this purpose, we develop and test two different types of thrust measurement system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.881-885
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• 2008

Wireless energy transmission system to a Micro Aerial Vehicle is now under development. A 5.8 GHz microwave phased array antenna and rectenna array receiver have been developed. An electric motor on a circling MAV model was driven by the transmitted power. In addition, 140GHz millimeter-waves of up to 1MW was beamed to a "Microwave Rocket" and its thrusting has been successfully demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.593-596
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• 2004

We are developing a micro-solid propellant rocket array thruster for simple attitude control of a 10 kg class micro-spacecraft. The prototype has ø 0.8 mm solid propellant micro-rockets arrayed at a pitch of 1.2 mm on a 22 x 22 mm substrate. In previous studies, an impulse thrust of 4.6 x 10$^{-4}$ Ns was obtained in vacuum, but we found the problems of unacceptably low ignition success rate and incomplete combustion. This paper describes experiments to improve the ignition rate. In order to achieve this goal, we tried to solidify paste-like ignition aid (RK) on the ignition heaters with strong adhesion. To make the paste-like RK, isoamyl acetate was added to RK powder. We tested 9 rockets, but only 2 rockets were ignited with huge ignition energy. This is because the heat con-duction between the ignition heater and the RK was too low to ignite the RK, since dried RK had a lot of pores. Also, a large cavity was sometimes found just above the ignition heater.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.53-54
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• 2002

Plasma ignition method has been applied in various fields particularly to the rocket propulsion, pyrotechnics, explosives, and to the automotive air-bag system. Ignition method for those applications should be safe and also operate reliably in hostile environments such as; electromagnetic noise, drift voltage, electrostatic background and so on. In the present study, a semiconductor bridge (SCB) plasma ignition device was fabricated and its plasma characteristics including the propagation speed of the plasma, plasma size, and plasma temperature were investigated with the aid of the visualization of micro scale plasma $(i.e.,\;\leq\;350\;{\mu}m)$, which generated from a Micro-Electro-Mechanical poly-silicon semiconductor bridge (SCB).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.239-245
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• 2006

Ultrasonic inspection method is more profitable than X-ray radiographic inspection in cost and effect of defect detection such as dis-bond, damage, and it does'nt need special constructions and can be possible real time inspection with safety. This report explains the experiment and analysis of ultrasonic property of solid propellant and the inspection methods of propellant/liner dis-bond by inside or outside inspection, and of propellnat micro crack by damage. At result, ultrasonics has big attenuation$(6\sim8db/cm)$ in solid propellant, and it. can be possiblle to detect the defect of propellant/liner dis-bond by inside or outside inspection. And also it can be possible to detect the propellant micro crack caused by damage by using ultrasonic attenuation.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.237-240
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• 2002

Micro catalytic reactors are alternative propulsion device that can be used on a nano satellite. When used with a monopropellant, $H_2O_2$, a micro catalytic reactor needs only one supply system as the monopropellant reacts spontaneously on contact with catalyst and releases heat without external ignition, while separate supply lines for fuel and oxidizer are needed for a bipropellant rocket engine. Additionally, $H_2O_2$ is in liquid phase at room temperature, eliminating the burden of storage for gaseous fuel and carburetion of liquid fuel. In order to design a micro catalytic reactor, an appropriate catalyst material must be selected. Considering the safety concern in handling the monopropellants and reaction performance of catalyst, we selected hydrogen peroxide at volume concentration of 70% and perovskite redox catalyst of lantanium cobaltate doped with strondium. Perovskite catalysts are known to have superior reactivity in reduction-oxidation chemical processes. In particular, lantanium cobaltate has better performance in chemical reactions involving oxygen atom exchange than other perovskite materials. In the present study, a process to prepare perovskite type catalyst, $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}CoO_3$, and measurement of its propellant decomposition performance in a test reactor are described.