KAIST

- World’s first application of high-performance liquid propellant to small satellite thruster 

 - Show about four times higher thrust performance than the cold gas thruster of University of Surrey, the state-of-the-art technology in the field of small satellite 

 - Expect a considerable contribution to the extension of the lifespan and mission range of small satellites 

The team of Professor Sejin Kwon (Department of Aerospace Engineering in KAIST/ President Nam Pyo Suh) and Space Solution Inc. (President Jaehun Lee) have jointly developed a micro thruster for small satellite motion-control. 

Kwon"s team has succeeded in developing an integrated thruster which can be mounted on a satellite by integrating catalyst reactor and propellant-supplying system, which are the core technologies of small satellite thruster system. 

For the first time in the world, Kwon’s team employs a high-performance liquid propellant to the thruster. 

In the thruster, liquid-state hydrogen peroxide is dissolved into vapor and oxygen at the catalytic layer to emit a huge amount of heat. And, the emitted heat is converted into the kinetic energy of the gas to produce a propulsive force. 

This thruster can perform the motion-control of a several tens-kilogram satellite with a propulsive force of less than one Newton and shows about four times higher thrust performance than the cold gas thruster of University of Surrey, who possesses the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of small satellites. 

Professor Kwon said, “Although University of Surrey has also tried to develop a similar system, it’s not yet solved the problem on catalytic reactor bed. I expect this thruster will considerably contribute to the extension of the lifespan and mission range of scientific small satellites. Also, this thruster can be employed for the attitude control of the upper end of the launch vehicle, which is now being developed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).” 

<Thruster module for small satellite application>