REDMOON: Radiation Environment and Dose Monitoring On-board a Nano-Rover: The Science Payload for the Lunar Zebro

A miniaturized instrument was developed to enable in-situ measurements of the radiation environment at the Moon. The instrument is designated to function as the science payload for the first mission of the Lunar Zebro nano-rover. Characterization and testing of the Floating Gate Dosimeter (FGDOS) was advanced with an emphasis on its utilization...

In-orbit Refuelling with Hydrogen Peroxide: An Architecture and Transfer Mechanism

The current state of in-orbit refuelling involves launching propellant from the Earth’s surface in a single use refuelling craft, often to transfer hydrazine to the customer. This method is a logical first step however this architecture is not reusable, and it centres around a toxic and carcinogenic propellant. An architecture is proposed where...

Design of a Novel Deployable Baffle for a Deployable Space Telescope

The need for Earth observation telescopes with high spatial and temporal resolution is constantly increasing, however, current state-of-the-art telescopes are costly. The Deployable Space Telescope project at TU Delft aims to provide a solution with an Earth observation telescope that has the same optical performance as today's best ones, but at...

Novel and Green Hypergolic Bi- Propellant System for Propulsion Application

Some propellants currently used in space propulsion have the disadvantage of being dangerous to humans and the environment. A wellknown example of this are hydrazine and its derivatives which are toxic, corrosive, and carcinogenic. These disadvantages have led to a search for less hazardous storable liquid propellants, often referred to as green...

The design and testing of an injector for anadvanced hypergolic dual-mode propulsionsystem

An important topic in the field of rocket propulsion is the development of a new green advanced hypergolic rocket propulsion system. The current hypergolic propellants have one large drawback, namely the toxic properties. The injector has a crucial role in the performance of a liquid engine. Therefore, the next step in the development of this...

Advantages of a supersonic split line nozzle over a submerged movable nozzle

The supersonic split line (SSSL) nozzle has been considered for years in the use of solid rocket motors. The SSSL nozzle is an attractive alternative to the more conventional submerged movable (SM) nozzle. The SSSL nozzle can save up to 43% on nozzle mass and 25% on the thrust vector control (TVC) system mass. The SSSL nozzle also has the...

Deployable Space Telescope: Redesign of the secondary mirror support structure

The need for higher spatio-temporal resolution Earth observation increases rapidly. To fill this need, the Deployable Space Telescope (DST) project aims to make a light-weight, low-volume deployable telescope. In doing so, the achievable ground resolution is high while the cost per telescope stays low. This allows for the DST to be used in...

Active cooling in additively manufactured liquid rocket engines: Comparing regenerative, film and transpiration cooling

The heat fluxes in (liquid) rocket engines can go up to high values and they need active cooling to prevent the chamber wall from failing. Transpiration cooling is identified as a way to achieve lower wall temperatures than commonly used regenerative cooling and regenerative cooling with additional film cooling (referred to as film cooling from...

A novel Semi-flexible solar panel concept for low Earth orbit applications

As the new space movement develops, so comes the request for cheaper space solar panels with a shorter delivery time. This master thesis investigates the possibilities of using a Semi-flexible terrestrial solar panel in a low Earth orbit space environment. A Semi-flexible solar panel is a sandwich of polymer films with the solar cells in between...

Linking Single Event In-Orbit Data, Space Weather and Satellite Operations

This thesis studies single events (SE) in an SRAM from the identical satellites Sentinel 2A and 2B, in order to find links between SE, space weather, satellite operation and device properties from time and position of event occurrence. A study of theory on single event rate prediction and space radiation environments lies the foundation for the...

RF-Bracket Design: Mass reduction of a mechanical bracket by redesigning the bracket without compromising on thermal, structural and EMC aspects

This thesis shows the mass reduction of a mechanical bracket, without compromising on thermal, EMC and structural aspects. The focus was on analysing thermal aspects related to bracket design. Models were made to show the deflection and solder layer stresses due to CTE mismatches between the bracket and PCB. A thermal heat transfer model was...

Uncertainty Estimation in Vision-Aided Robot Teleoperation System

Teleoperation allows the use of human intelligence and decision making in remote tasks which are too dangerous for humans to perform. Technologies such as force feedback and haptic guidance have shown to increase task efficiency during teleoperation. In an unmodeled environment, sensors provide input for haptic guidance or present extra...

Investigation of the Flow Characteristics in a Pintle Controlled Rocket Motor Nozzle

Unlike a liquid rocket-engine, it is not possible to actively throttle the overall combustion of a solid rocket-motor. It is however possible to alter the thrust of an individual thruster by varying its throat area. The throat area can be altered by inserting a pintle of a conical or other shape into the nozzle throat. A setup which consist of...

Ignition modeling in methane-oxygen rocket engines: Design and modeling of a methane-oxygen rocket engine igniter using reacting flows with computational fluid dynamics

The influence of using different chemistry model and different chemical kinetics schemes on modeling combustion inside a rocket engine igniter are investigated. An igniter for a LOX/CH4 rocket engine is designed and a CFD model is developed which is used to model the designed igniter. Verification and validation methods are discussed.<br/><br/>...

Thermoelectric generation for a self-powered autonomous sensor in satellites

There are several benefits of using autonomous sensors in spacecraft. Avoidance of wired connections reduces cost, mass, and increases the flexibility and reliability of the system. The impact of wire reduction can be significant, especially for small satellites with many sensors, like temperature and sun sensors. Previous research has already...