The high costs associated with launching satellites into orbit drives the market towards more compact satellites. These compact satellites require the development of miniaturized components, including a propulsion system. The Space Engineering (SpE) department of the Faculty of A
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The high costs associated with launching satellites into orbit drives the market towards more compact satellites. These compact satellites require the development of miniaturized components, including a propulsion system. The Space Engineering (SpE) department of the Faculty of Aerospace engineering at the TU Delft is actively working on developing these miniaturized propulsion systems, including the Vaporizing Liquid Micro-resistojet (VLM). This thesis aims to "design a modular micro-resistojet propulsion system that is capable of delivering three distinct total impulse levels, based on a pre-existing VLM thruster developed by the TU Delft, with a focus on integration into a CubeSat configuration. The three systems developed in this thesis comprise a printed circuit board (PCB), a propellant tank with integrated propellant management devices (PMDs), piping, tank heaters, and a TunaCan add-on, utilizing water as the propellant and gaseous nitrogen as the pressurant. The PMD is a combination of a radial sponge, consisting of 70 sponge panels, and a 6-vane configuration. This vane configuration consists of 3 short and 3 long vanes to increase the expulsion efficiency without altering the ability to move propellant from the top of the tank towards the sponge and tank outlet. A preliminary thermal analysis on simplified versions of propulsion systems showed that a combination of tank heaters, each capable of providing 0.5 W, and a Zerlauts Z-93 white coating applied to the thruster side of the propulsion system are required to maintain a propellant temperature between 10 ºC and 50 ºC, whilst ensuring that the propellant within the piping does neither freeze nor boil. The final system designs achieve a thrust level of 1 mN and specific impulse of 130 s for a maximum input power of 7.9 W. A detailed thruster design is outside the scope of this thesis hence these performance values are calculated using ideal rocket theory. The three systems are capable of delivering a total impulse of 226 Ns, 465 Ns, and 700 Ns at a wet mass of 777 grams, 998 grams, and 1217 grams respectively. Several recommendations are proposed for further research, including the redesign of the thruster, enhancements to the tankage and PMD design, and improvements to the thermal and structural analyses.