We are developing thruster to be mounted on nanosatellite. Electrospray thruster gains thrust by exhausting ions, which are extracted from ionic liquid at the tip of needle-like emitters. To obtain larger thrust, it is necessary to make emitters high-density arrays using MEMS technology.
This is a collaborative research with Takao-Lab in Yokohama National University.
- Nakagawa, et al., “Microfabricated Emitter Array for an Ionic Liquid Electrospray Thruster,” Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 56, No. 6S1, 2017, 06GN18. DOI: 10.7567/JJAP.56.06GN18