Experimental Characterization of an Impulsive Hydrogen Peroxide-based Rocket for Fine Orbit Control

Hydrogen peroxide is a suitable solution for space applications because it is considered a "green" propellant. It has been used since 1900’s for propulsion purposes due to its features, like low vapor pressure and non-toxicity. Specifically, experimental and numerical research is devoted to design and optimization of monopropellant rockets based on hydrogen peroxide as propellant, especially in view of their application onboard small satellites. Studies foresee decomposition reaction characterization and performance analysis by using different catalysts. The current work is based on an experimental campaign of a monopropellant thruster working in pulsed mode designed for nanosatellites. The problem investigated deals with the activation decomposition temperature (established with or without an electrical pre-heating), depending in turn on the feeding pressure and on the injected propellant mass flow rate, for the thruster under study. The decomposition behaviour affects the performances of the 1N hydrogen peroxide monopropellant thruster, in particular the characteristic velocity and the total ΔV. A secondary objective was to investigate, by adopting an ignition procedure based on a sequence of pulses and by heating the catalytic compartment, if it is possible to enhance the decomposition efficiency, for use of the decomposition chamber as a gas generator for ignition of a hybrid propellant rocket. The results show that the performances are affected by the feeding pressure, the initial temperature (hot/cold start) and the injected mass flow rate. The performance in terms of characteristic velocity has an increasing trend versus the feeding pressure. On the other hand, the characteristic velocity decreases when the injected mass flow increases. As regards the initial temperature, results show that chamber preheating does not affect the overall performance. In addition, the total ΔV has been analyzed at a fixed upstream pressure and results show an increasing trend with the injected mass flow, as expected. Finally, the temperature analysis has been carried out to investigate if the system is able to ignite a hybrid system. The results show that it is possible to ignite a grain of fuel for space applications.