| Budget Amount *help |
¥18,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥5,720,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,320,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥5,460,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,260,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥7,020,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,620,000)
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| Research Abstract |
In this study, we proposed a dimethyl ether (DME) arcjet thruster and throttleable solid-propellant thrust-augmentation module for simplifying the propulsion system and realizing wide range variable thrust. The thrust-augmentation module has a combustion-controllable solid propellant which sustains combustion only while an external heat was supplied to its burning surface. Thrust measurement for prototyped arcjet thruster yielded a specific impulse of 330 s and a thruster efficiency of 0.14 at a discharge power of 2600 W. Burning rate of combustion controllable solid propellant under external heating was evaluated using a semiconductor laser. With some solid propellants, combustion was successfully started and interrupted by laser irradiation. Burning measurement yielded pressure exponents regime from 0.4 and 0.6. Theoretically, if pressure exponents are lower than 1.0, a solid propellant thruster sustains a stable thrust. From the results, the thrust-augmentation module with combustion controllable propellants yields stable thrusts.
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