Pixels in Electrospray Thrusters for Ultra-Reliable, Flat-Panel Electric Propulsion

Electrospray thruster arrays are a promising technology for scalable electric space propulsion with potential for high efficiency and specific impulse. Currently, these arrays consist of a series of microscale sharp structures protruding from a single panel. These structures transport an ionic liquid, which serves as propellant. Inconsistencies in the materials and manufacturing can cause individual tips to fail, resulting in complete array malfunction. To remedy this, emitter tips can be replaced by “pixel” emitters, which would consist of individualized wells embedded in a dielectric material. These wells would be surrounded by a small ring coated with a conductive material to serve as the extractor electrode. Individual extractors would connect to one another through thin, conductive strips, serving as fuses. Upon the shortage of a single emitter, the fuse would disintegrate, allowing the rest of the “pixel” emitters to continue firing, effectively solving the lifetime issue associated with current electrospray thrusters. These “pixels” would function as pixels on an LED screen, where the shortage of a pixel on the screen does not short the entire screen. These arrays would be constructed using masking and lithography techniques and equipment available at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A single “pixel,” then a full array, would be manufactured and tested in vacuum chamber facilities at the Space Propulsion Laboratory at MIT using time of flight and thrust tests to measure performance and fuse operation. This proposal would contribute to the advancement of electric in-space propulsion technologies (2.2.1). Using this “pixel” approach, the safety factor of the propulsion systems would greatly improve. Rather than adding significant mass through the addition of multiple back-up thruster arrays, only back-up “pixel” emitters would be added to the system, increasing the robustness, lifetime, and reliability of the propulsion system without significantly increasing its mass, volume, and power requirements.

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