Safe High Thrust

CU Aerospace has tested a proof-of-principle Monopropellant Propulsion Unit for CubeSats (MPUC). Complete catalyzed combustion was demonstrated with H2O2-based propellant mixtures denoted as CMP-X. This monopropellant has zero toxicity and no special measures are required for its long-term storage. CMP-X was subjected to and passed UN Series 1, 3, and 6 and demonstrated no detonation or mass explosion and is recommended for exclusion from the explosives Class list.  Long term stability testing is underway and to date exhibits good stability. CMP-X is designed not for highest performance Isp, but as a monopropellant option for customers who can accept a modest 20% performance penalty (relative to AF-315E and LMP-103S) for the advantages of air transportability, considerably fewer range safety concerns, lower flame temperature resulting in considerably less thermal soakback into the spacecraft, and longer continuous thrust burns.  

CMP-X retains the ability to scale in thrust magnitude and requires minimal catalyst bed warmup time. Thrust stand tests achieved a thrust level of >150 mN with Isp >180 s with an average input power of ~3 W, for hot fire runs typically spanning >10 minutes. MPUC designs comprise a complete propulsion system technology for CubeSats and other small satellites. A conceptual system also provides cold-gas attitude control system (ACS) and projects ~2,500 N-s of total impulse for a 2U package size.