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SCALABLE IONIC LIQUID ELECTROSPRAY THRUSTERS FOR NANOSATELLITES

Conference Paper · February 2016

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 AAS 16-124

SCALABLE IONIC LIQUID ELECTROSPRAY THRUSTERS

FOR NANOSATELLITES

David Krejci* and Paulo Lozano†

While the number of Nanosatellites launched has rising rapidly in recent years,
this satellite class still suffers from a lack of high efficient, reasonable miniatur-
ized propulsion systems. The Space Propulsion Laboratory at MIT has therefore
developed a miniaturized electrostatic thruster technology based on Microelec-
tromechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturing processes. This electrospray
thruster consists of an array of 480 ion emitter tips per square centimeter and
uses room temperature molten salts as propellant, achieving a specific impulse
of >1150s with an approximate thrust density of 12μN/cm2. Multiple of these
thrusters can be added together in a modular way. A propulsion module featur-
ing 8 of these thrusters has been developed under the NASA Microfluidic Elec-
trospray Propulsion (MEP) program, delivering primary propulsion to Cubesats
for orbit correction and change maneuvers. Including power processing unit
(PPU), this propulsion module fits in a 0.2U envelope, weighting less than 100g.
A thrust of 74ȝN was measured for this unit at a total power consumption of
1.5-2W, complying with Cubesats as small as 1.5U. In addition, the modular na-
ture of the thruster allows easy up scaling of the propulsion unit up to 36 thrust-
ers per Cubesat panel, leading to a projected ǻv in the order of 1km/s for a 3U
Cubesat.

INTRODUCTION
Highly efficient propulsion systems with thrust densities comparable to large electric propul-
sion systems continue to remain elusive for Cubesats. In the light of physical difficulties of minia-
turizing ionization chambers, the Space Propulsion Laboratory at MIT 1,2,3 and others4,5,6 have
chosen to develop a thruster using a propellant composed of ions itself, which are extracted and
accelerated by electrostatic forces only. This approach allowed reducing the active thruster vol-
ume significantly. Ion extraction from the liquid propellant bulk and acceleration are achieved
within sub millimeter length scale. In addition, the vanishing vapor pressure of the ionic liquid
propellant allows purely passive feed system, avoiding bulky components such as valves and
pressurization systems.

*
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77
Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, U.S.A.
†
Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts
Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, U.S.A.

801
THRUSTER DESCRIPTION
Electrospray thruster
The MIT developed ionic liquid electrospray thruster features 480 emitter tips on a 1 cm2
emitter array area in its current configuration. These emitter tips are manufactured out of bulk
porous glass by laser ablation, and are bonded to a Silicon structure for alignment and packaging
purposes. An extractor plate, featuring individual apertures for each emitter tip, is aligned relative
to the emitter tips using the Silicon structure. Propellant is supplied passively from a reservoir to
the back of the emitter array, with the liquid fed through the porous glass bulk to the emitter tips
by capillary forces only7,8,9.
When applying a potential difference between the conductive ionic liquid propellant and the
extractor electrode, liquid meniscus structures balancing electric stress and surface tension are
formed atop the emitter tips, leading ultimately to extraction of charged particles at the apex of
the cones as soon as the local electric field strength surpasses a given threshold9. To avoid elec-
trochemistry effects in the ionic liquids, a distal electrode10 is implemented using a highly porous
carbon electrode located in the tank structure. To avoid charge imbalance in the stored liquid, the
thrusters are operated by alternating a high voltage to the ionic liquid11 with typical switching
periods in the order of tenths of seconds. To avoid charging of the spacecraft, two thrusters are
simultaneously operated at opposite polarities12.
Figure 1 shows the MIT electrospray emitter mounted on a tank developed under the NASA
Microfluidic Electrospray Propulsion (MEP) program* compared to an alternative, more recent
tank concept. The tank structure ensures confinement of the ionic liquid while allowing the inner
and outer pressure to equalize and prevent pressurization at all times.

Figure 1. Electrospray emitter array and different tank configurations: NASA MEP tank (right) and
most recent design (left).

*
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate: Micro-Electrospray Thrusters, http://gcd.larc.nasa.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/FS-MEP_factsheet_130124.pdf (last accessed: 1/26/2016)

802
Propulsion module
The small footprint, small mass and low power consumption of the electrospray thruster ena-
bles propulsion modules with multiple emitter arrays. This allows for adaptive design according
to mission requirements. Figure 2 shows two propulsion modules featuring 8 emitters. The S-
iEPS module developed under the NASA MEP program shown on the left side features 8 emitters
operated in parallel, intended for single axis primary propulsion of Cubesats. In this configura-
tion, the thrusters are grouped in 2 clusters of 4 thrusters, expelling ions of opposite charge to
prevent spacecraft potential shift13. The laboratory models shown incorporate thrusters and PPU
electronics on the same PCB. Figure 2 on the right hand side shows a propulsion module design
featuring 8 thrusters in a two-axis attitude control configuration, with the PPU located on separate
PCBs that are not shown. In this propulsion module, thrusters are individually addressed and fired
in pairs of opposite polarity, again maintaining spacecraft charge balance. For primary propul-
sion, all thrusters can be operated simultaneously.
Dimensions, mass, power and leading performance parameters of for the NASA S-iEPS pro-
pulsion module and individual thrusters are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. NASA S-iEPS thruster and propulsion module leading parameters.

Individual S-iEPS S-iEPS Propulsion

Parameter
thruster module
Dry weight [g] 1.8 97

Dimensions [mm] 14.4x14.4x14.1 90x96x21

Power [W] <0.15 <1.5 (@5.5V input bus)

Propellant EMI-BF4

Specific Impulse [s] 1150

Nominal emission current [PA] 150 1200

Design nominal thrust at full throttle [PN] 12.5 100

Number of emitter tips 480 3840

Active emission area [cm2] 1 8

803
 Figure 2. Sample propulsion module configurations featuring 8 emitter arrays: Laboratory units of
NASA-MEP S-iEPS single thrust direction module including PPU, and attitude control configuration
module.

THRUSTER CHARACTERIZATION
In the investigation presented in this chapter, single emitters were used, without dedicated
propellant tanks. In this configuration, the ionic liquid was directly applied to the porous glass
emitter from the backside. In addition, a small amount of liquid was stored in a fiberglass sheet
placed in direct contact with the porous glass to mimic a propellant tank.

Emission current vs applied voltage

To characterize emission behavior and transmissivity of the extractor electrode, the emission
current, that is the current drawn by the emitter from a laboratory power supply, and the inter-
cepted current, that is the current measured from the extractor to ground, was recorded a a func-
tion applied emitter voltage. In this experiment, the applied voltage was varied in three successive
scans linearly between positive and negative maximum voltages at a period of 30s.
Figure 3 shows resulting currents averaged over three scans for a sample emitter, displaying
standard deviation of the reduced data. The data shows startup voltages of ion emission of +/-
640V and relative interception of 1.3% and 0.4% at emission current of +150uA and -150uA re-
spectively. This corresponds to an ion transmissivity of 98.7% and 99.7% for the positive and
negative emission polarity respectively. Interception of ions by the extractor compromise lifetime
and reduce performance, and it is therefore sought that transmission is as close as possible to
100%.

804
 150

emitted current
100

emitted current [μA]

50

-50 intercepted current

-100

-150

-1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600 800 1000
emitter potential [V]

Figure 3. Emitted and intercepted current as a function of applied voltage

Temperature dependent beam characteristics

To investigate the impact of ambient temperature on ion emission, a setup using two Peltier
elements in serial configuration was used. To ensure thermal contact, the emitter was mounted
directly onto an aluminum mount, which housed the thermocouple whose temperature reading
was used in this section.
Figure 4 shows increasing emission currents for increasing temperatures for constant emitter
potential, as expected from temperature dependency of physical parameters, most prominently the
electrical conductivity and viscosity.

Figure 4. Emission current as a function of temperature

The emitted ion beam was investigated using a Faraday probe mounted on a rotational arm, at
a distance of 6cm from the extractor plane. The Faraday probe featured an aperture of 6.35mm
(1/4”) with a grounded grid followed by a high voltage and a secondary suppression grid.

805
 The high voltage grid was grounded for spatial beam distribution measurements, in which the
Faraday cup was rotated across the half hemisphere in front of the thruster. Figure 5 shows the
normalized current profiles as a function of beam opening half angle and selected temperatures.
The data clearly shows a trend of increasing beam opening angle with increased temperatures, as
physical properties such as viscosity.

Beam divergence,positive emitter polarity Beam divergence, negative emitter potential

-10°C -10°C
1 1
10°C 10°C

40°C 40°C
0.8 0.8
normalized current [-]

normalized current [-]

50°C 50°C

60°C 60°C
0.6 0.6
80°C 80°C

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
-90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
angle [deg] angle [deg]

Figure 5. Spatial beam distribution for different temperatures

Energy resolving spectroscopy as a function of emitter temperature was conducted by placing

the Faraday cup at the center axis of the emitted ion beam. During continuous emission, a linearly
increasing high voltage profile of the same polarity as the emitted particles was applied to the
high voltage grid in front of the Faraday cup. This way, particles with energies lower than the
corresponding potential of the stopping grid were prevented from passing to the detector. The
normalized detector signals for different temperatures are shown in Figure 6. Note that the spectra
were recorded at constant ion emission currents, therefore necessitating increased emission poten-
tials for decreasing temperatures, according to the findings in Figure 4. The interesting thing to
note in the results presented in Figure 6 is the changing slope of the detector signals. While this
slope is generally associated with energy losses due to fragmentation processes in the particle
beam14, a trend towards decreased fragmentation for decreasing temperatures is noticed in the
data. This complies with the reduced thermal energy of droplets and solvated ions, reducing the
possibility to break up during acceleration. In addition, as viscosity decreases with increased tem-
perature, hydraulic limiting of the feed flow decreases, shifting the emitter towards a droplet-
richer regime.

806
 RPA, positive emitter polarity RPA, negative emitter polarity
-10°C -10°C
1 15°C 1 15°C

40°C 40°C
0.8 50°C 0.8 50°C
normalized current [-]

normalized current [-]

60°C 60°C
0.6 80°C 0.6 80°C

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
stopping potential [V] stopping potential [V]

Figure 6. Beam energy distribution for different temperatures

In addition to thruster emission studies as a function of emitter temperature, a thruster includ-

ing tank was exposed to storage conditions at different temperatures (in N2 atmosphere). This
thermal cycling procedure consisted of 6h duration storage at -20°C, followed by 6h at +90°C.
This cycle was repeated a total of 8 times, with firing the thruster in between to study eventual
changes in emission characteristics. Figure 7 shows the emitted current as a function of applied
emitter potential before and after 4 and 8 thermal storage cycles. No impact of the storage at low
and high temperatures on emission characteristics could be observed for the number of cycles
conducted.

Figure 7. Emission behavior after thermal cycles

PROPULSION MODULE CHARACTERIZATION

Parallel operation of electrospray emitters was performed using a NASA S-iEPS propulsion
module, which is designed to simultaneously fire 8 thrusters (4 thrusters in each polarity), before
alternating polarities between groups of thruster at a switching cycle of 30s. Due to failure of one
of the thruster prior to the test, it was decided to operate only 3 thrusters per polarity group in this
test to maintain charge symmetry.

807
 Figure 8. Full thruster module testing: NASA S-iEPS

Figure 9 shows the applied potentials and emission currents for a 50h test period. The propul-
sion module was idled for approximately one hour to test restart capability. The test validated the
ability of parallel operation of electrospray emitters during extended periods of time. A detailed
discussion of the test apparatus and discussion of results as well as direct thrust measurements of
an S-iEPS propulsion unit can be found in Ref. 13.

Figure 9. 50 hour test of NASA S-iEPS propulsion module [13].

TILE: UPSCALING POTENTIAL

Figure 10. TILE: an upscaled version for significant 'v capability for Cubesats, featuring 36 emitter
arrays

808
 Tests with the NASA S-iEPS module verified the feasibility to operate emitter arrays in paral-
lel, achieving uniform emission across emitter chips. This enables the possibility for significant
thrust level increase by increasing the number of emitter arrays, leveraging the same power sup-
ply, and possibly propellant reservoirs. Figure 10 shows a design study of the proposed TILE
module, featuring 36 emitter chips grouped in clusters of four emitter arrays sharing propellant
tanks. In this configuration, each cluster can be individually addressed in both polarities, with
operation requiring operation of at least two clusters in opposite emission polarity simultaneous-
ly. The propulsion module thus allows thrust vectoring, attitude control in two axes and primary
propulsion when operating all clusters, or subsets of clusters, simultaneously.
Projected performance parameters for the TILE propulsion module, based on experimental
characterization of single emitter arrays, are summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. TILE propulsion module main parameters, based on experimental single emitter array pa-
rameters.

Parameter TILE Propulsion module

Dimensions [mm] 90x96x40

Power [W] <10 (@5.5V input bus)

Propellant EMI-BF4

Specific Impulse [s] 1150

Nominal emission current [mA] 5.4

Design nominal thrust at full throttle [P1] ~0.5

Number of emitter tips 17280

Active emission area [cm2] 36

Total impulse (~65g propellant) [Ns] 400-450

CONCLUSION
The manuscripts presents recent designs of the MIT SPL electrospray thruster, a highly minia-
turized propulsion device featuring 480 ion emitters per square centimeter. Zero vapor pressure
ionic liquids are used as propellant, allowing passive propellant feed flow, obviating any valves
or pressurization systems. This way, a single thruster developed under the NASA MEP program
could be minimized to a dry weight of <1.8g. The influence of realistic temperature operational
conditions on thruster behavior is presented and discussed, including energy and spatial beam
distribution as a function of temperature.
Propulsion modules based on this thruster technology are presented, including attitude control
configuration and parallel operation of multiple thrusters to increase thrust. Extended firing dura-
tion data of the NASA S-iEPS propulsion module featuring a nominal thrust of 100PN is present-
ed. In addition, the TILE propulsion module, a design featuring 36 emitter arrays while still com-
plying with the CubeSat standard is presented and expected performance parameters are dis-
cussed.

809
 Future developments are envisioned in different directions and are currently investigated at
MIT-SPL. These include the increase of number of tips on a single module to obtain larger
amounts of thrusts and the increase of device lifetime to eventually reach 1000 hrs or more. These
improvements would allow electrosprays to propel small and relatively inexpensive spacecraft
even into escape trajectories to explore interplanetary space.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Fernando Mier Hicks for setup of the laboratory instruments
and temperature setup. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Corey Fucetola for his continu-
ous contributions to emitter manufacturing. Funding for this work was provided by NASA and
the US Department of Defense.

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