A review of MEMS micropropulsion technologies for CubeSats and PocketQubes

CubeSats have been extensively used in the past decade as scientific tools, technology demonstrators and for education. Recently, PocketQubes have emerged as an interesting and even smaller alternative to CubeSats. However, both satellite types often lack some key capabilities, such as micropropulsion, in order to further extend the range of...

Vaporizing Liquid Microthrusters with integrated heaters and temperature measurement

This paper presents the results of design, manufacturing and characterization of Vaporizing Liquid Microthrusters (VLM) with integrated molybdenum heaters and temperature sensing. The thrusters use water as the propellant and are designed for use in CubeSats and PocketQubes. The devices are manufactured using silicon based MEMS (Micro Electro...