• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2862-2867
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• 2007

The steady non-reacted compressible flow field in a symmetric micro-thruster, which is used for the accurate attitude control of a satellite, is analyzed varying the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) to investigate the plume characteristics. The nozzle throat diameter is 0.06 inch and the area ratio is 56. The recirculation region is found just behind the normal shock at the several NPRs due to the locally adverse pressure gradient along the nozzle centerline when the environmental pressure is atmospheric. This phenomenon, the cause of flow loss, is similar to the flow behind a blunt body. As NPR increases the location of Mach disk, characteristics of the normal shock, moves downstream and its strength increases. The Mach number distribution appears in a wave-type patter after the normal shock because oblique shocks are reflected on the shock boundaries especially when NPRs are very high.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.419-424
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• 2009

A Xenon feed system has been developed for a 300 W Hall-effect thruster intended for orbit maintenance of small satellite. The system can store about 2 kg of xenon gas at 150 bar and is capable of controlling the mass flow rate of the gas at 0.5 SCCM resolution. The performance of the system is verified with a laboratory experiment. It is confirmed that the operation of the feed system is successful at a pressure level of $1.0{\times}10^{-6}$ torr in the vacuum chamber.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.365-368
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• 2009

A new concept of a small thruster for altitude control of a micro/nano class satellite is developed, which utilizes the pulsed laser energy. As the laser-based thruster does not require burning of any fuel, it gives promise of small satellite design criteria, namely light weight and cost effectiveness. In this paper, we develop gel-type material for generating strong plasma plume for enhancing thrust for propulsion. Moreover, we quantify the level of thrust via the momentum coupling coefficient measured by the pendulum system. We discover that the driving force is significantly improved via the gel-typed propellant for laser ablation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• v.y2005m4
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• pp.381-385
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• 2005

Recently, spacecraft technology trends can be expressed three words, i.e. 'faster, cheaper and smaller'. Among these systems, micro propulsion device is an essential component. Also micro nozzle is the most important part in the micro propulsion device. In case of cold-gas thruster, micro nozzle converts the stored energy in a pressurized gas into kinetic energy through expansion ratio. In this paper we report characteristics of micro nozzle with throat expansion ratio and ratio of specific heats. We measure thrusts using strain gauge based thrust measurement system. We can estimate the micro nozzle performance through experiments.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.139-143
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• 2007

Electric propulsion has become a cost effective and sound engineering solution for many space applications. The success of SMART-1 and MUSES-C developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) each proved that even small spacecraft could accomplish planetary mission with electric propulsion systems. A small electric propulsion system which is Hall effect thruster like SMART-1 is under development by SaTReC and GDPL (Glow Discharge Plasma Lab.) in KAIST for the next microsatellite, STSAT-3. To achieve optimized propulsion system, it is very necessary to understand plasma motions of Hall effect thruster. In this paper, we try to approach comprehensive plasma model with the particle simulation complementary to Particle In Cell (PIC) simulation. We think these two different approaches will help experimenters to optimize Hall effect thruster performances.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.95-108
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• 2019

Electric propulsion is a type of space propulsion with a high specific impulse by accelerating propellant using electrical energy and brings about reduction of the fuel mass and launch costs of satellites so that it is being extensively studied in the world. Electric thrusters are widely used for various purposes from micro satellites to large satellites and from low Earth orbit satellites to spacecraft for exploration. Recently, satellites using full-electric propulsion have been developed, and the number of satellites with electric propulsion is also gradually increasing. In this paper, the current status and trends of research on electric propulsion in the United States, Europe, and Japan will be reported.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.281-285
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• 2007

The flow characteristics in the thruster should be analyzed considering its geometry and the pressure ratio to estimate its performance and etc. This paper suggests the computational result of an axisymmetric real nozzle for the altitude control of a satellite to find out the application limit that the assumption of continuum mechanics holds. The steady non-reacted compressible flow field in the unstructured grid system is computed and analyzed with varying the environmental pressure (or the degree of vacuum) under the fixed pressure ratio in a real thruster of which the area ratio of exit to throat is 56. The assumption of the continuum mechanics is not approved when the environmental pressure is reduced less than $10^{-3}$ atm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.597-600
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• 2004

Fabrication technique and performance test of catalytic micro propulsion are treated based on MEMS technology. This propulsion is designed to use hydrogen peroxide as liquid mono-propellant for attitude control of pica-satellite. The propellant is fed into the micro reactor channel and decomposed into hot gas yielding controllable thrust by catalyst. In order to increase the efficiency of the reaction that depends on the contact area of propellant and catalyst, porous surface formation on the channel accompanied by platinum particle deposition has been performed using H$_2$PtCl$_{6}$ solution as a precursor. Several thrusters were fabricated in different concentration of H$_2$PtCl$_{6}$ solution to determine the best quantity of Pt particles. For the comparison of the performance of each thruster, the volume of oxygen generated by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and the thrust were measured.red.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.158-160
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• 2006

Super alloys are typically used for the liquid thruster in the aerospace industry. In this work, The bead-on-plate welding of Inconel 600, Inconel 625 and Haynes 230 using Nd:YAG laser are studied, in order to examine the effects of experimental parameters on their weldability. The micro-hardness and tensile strength of the specimens are also analyzed, to obtain the optimal welding conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.361-364
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• 2009

Vacuum facility is required for high altitude space environment test to develop small thruster to be applied for micro-satellite. After selecting vacuum equipment and integrating the chamber to simulate 100-120km attitude with max, $10^{-5}\;torr$. We tested the performance of high vacuum chamber. We designed, fabricated the knudsen pump and analyzed pressure gradient efficiency of membrane according to Knudsen number under vacuum conditions. We described the upgrade plan to a thermal vacuum chamber.