Space agencies around the world are currently pursuing the use of miniaturised satellites (nanosats) featuring masses 10 kg for the next generation of space missions. As a result of the dramatically reduced size, nanosats require unique and miniaturised propulsion systems to provide the extremely low levels of thrust and impulse necessary for orbital maneuvering and precise station-keeping. To this end Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)-based propulsion systems, i.e microthrusters have been identified as potential solution.



A component vital to any chemical-based propulsion scheme is the converging-diverging nozzle, whose role is to produce thrust by efficiently converting the pressure/internal energy of inlet gases into kinetic energy. At micron scale, flow characteristics are different from conventional nozzles. Effects such as rarefied flow regime, heat transfer & thick boundary layers dominate the flow behavior in micro-nozzle. An optimized micro-nozzle to accommodate these effects will be developed for the microthruster. Also, measurement setups required for obtaining precise thrust & inlet pressure will be developed to aid in optimizing micro-nozzle design.