CUA has developed a high thrust propulsion option using an ethanol and hydrogen peroxide monopropellant mixture. This monopropellant, designated CMP-X, is a non-detonable yet energetic commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) formulation that possesses many system-level advantages over legacy monopropellants (such as hydrazine), including lower cost, lower thermal load (approximately 900°C flame temperature), water-like viscosity, common materials compatibility, and an additively manufactured thruster head. CMP-X is designed as a monopropellant option for customers who can accept a modest performance trade-off for the advantages of lower cost, easy transportability, considerably fewer range safety concerns, longer continuous thrust burns, freeze temperature less than –33°C, and lower flame temperature, resulting in considerably less thermal soakback into the spacecraft.
CMP-X retains the ability to scale in thrust magnitude and requires minimal catalyst bed warmup time. CUA’s CMP-X thrusters have demonstrated a steady 178 second specific impulse at 230 mN thrust during thrust stand testing with continuous firing times greater than 50 minutes. A 2-litre sized MPUC would have a total impulse greater than 2,000 N-s.
Other advantages include:
Peroxide/Ethanol Mixture (CMP-8 and CMP-X)
Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) required for final design and qualification.
First unit w/ dual fault tolerance unit ~15-month lead time (shorter lead times thereafter)
Advantages Include:
Primary thrust greater than 500 mN demonstrated
Well-suited for 6U or larger CubeSats
Attitude control system (ACS) option can be added
Thrust can be throttled
Non-detonable, non-explosive UN 1.4S transportation classification
System is scalable for very high thrust