In one embodiment, an air-scoop includes an air inlet that air molecules enter the air-scoop through at an orbital speed when the air-scoop is moving through an atmosphere at the orbital speed. The air-scoop also includes a rotor that is rotated by a motor at a rotational speed, and the rotor includes multiple rotatable blade stages. A first one of the rotatable blade stages has a blade configuration that maximizes transparency of the first one of the rotatable blade stages to air molecules entering the air-scoop through the air inlet at the orbital speed when the rotor is rotating at the rotational speed. A last one of the rotatable blade stages has a blade configuration that maximizes opacity of the last one of the rotatable blade stages to air molecules in the air-scoop flowing directionally toward the air inlet when the rotor is rotating at the rotational speed.

An electrospray apparatus including a plurality of emitters, disposed on a substrate, wherein the plurality of emitters can have a narrow parameter distribution.

A modular micro-cathode arc thruster for use in satellites. An exemplary satellite has a plurality of stacked modular arc thrusters, each having an external anode, an internal cathode, and an insulator therebetween. The arc thrusters are situated in a housing, wherein the housing has an opening to eject exhausted thrusters. Once an arc thruster is expended, the push rod ejects that arc thruster and the next arc thruster takes its place.

An electrospray thruster including an emitter, an extractor, a propellant storage vessel for a primary liquid propellant, a propellant delivery pathway from the vessel to the emitter, and an ionic liquid. The ionic liquid is configured to have a solid phase at temperatures less than a predetermined temperature and a liquid phase at temperatures greater than the predetermined temperature, and the ionic liquid is configured to create a propellant isolation barrier in the solid phase to prevent absorption by the primary liquid propellant. The electrospray thruster also includes a heater associated with the vessel and configured to heat the ionic liquid to above the predetermined temperature for mixing with the primary liquid propellant.

A satellite thruster increases satellite efficiency. The Linear Actuated μCAT has a stepper motor to move the ablative electrode forward. A LabVIEW program and Arduino microcontroller are used to analyze the Linear Actuated μCAT to determine how many steps are required for re-ignition, arc current, and the validity of the feed system. Results from testing show that micro-stepping the stepper motor is an effective way to replenish the cannibalized electrode for propellant.

A gas inlet suitable in particular for use in an ion thruster includes a housing which is made of a gas-tight ceramics material, and an insert which is arranged in the housing and is made of a porous ceramics material. The geometry and pore structure of the insert are such that the insert forms a desired flow resistance for a gas stream flowing through the insert.

A fuel-free spacecraft propelling system having an open-ended outer cylinder of a propelling device and an atomic oxygen collecting device is disclosed. The latter is arranged at the forwardly-propelled front end of the outer cylinder and is hermetically connected with an RF generating device and an ion cyclotron wave heating device through a magnetic confinement device. A spiral wave discharge oxygen plasma inlet and a spiral wave discharge oxygen plasma outlet in the ion cyclotron wave heating device are respectively provided with another magnetic confinement device. The propulsion of the invention does not need to carry the propellant, which greatly reduces the launch costs, and enables a spacecraft to advantageously have an increased orbit life over existing spacecraft systems.

A Fiber-fed Pulsed Plasma Thruster (FPPT) utilizes a motor to feed PTFE fiber to its discharge region, enabling high PPT propellant throughput and variable exposed fuel area. A highly parallel ceramic capacitor bank lowers system specific mass. Impulse bits (I-bits) from 0.057-0.241 mN-s have been measured on a thrust stand with a specific impulse (Isp) of 900-2400 s, representing an enhancement from state-of-the-art PPT technology. A 1 U (10 cm×10 cm×10 cm, or 1 liter) volume FPPT thruster package will provide 2900-7700 N-s total impulse, enabling 0.6-1.6 km/s delta-V for a 5 kg CubeSat. A 1 U design variation with 590 g propellant enables as much as .sup.˜10,000 N-s and a delta-V of 2 km/s for a 5 kg CubeSat. Increasing the form factor to 2U increases propellant mass to 1.4 kg and delta-V to 10.7 km/s for an 8 kg CubeSat.

An inductive plasma acceleration apparatus, comprising a pulse laser assembly, a pulsed discharge assembly, an exciting coil assembly, a solid state working medium, and a control assembly; the exciting coil assembly is electrically connected to the pulsed discharge assembly such that a strong pulse current is produced in the exciting coil assembly during the discharge process of the pulse discharge assembly, and an inductive pulse electromagnetic field is excited around the exciting coil assembly; the solid state working medium is positioned on the optical path of a pulse laser emitted by the pulse laser assembly such that the solid state working medium produces a pulse gas under the ablation action of the pulse laser, and the inductive pulse electromagnetic field is positioned on the circulation gas path of the pulse gas such that the pulse gas can enter the inductive pulse electromagnetic field.

An intelligent control gas suction-type electric propulsion system applicable to multi-flow regimes: an ultra-low orbit rare gas is used as a working medium for attitude orbit control and resistance compensation propulsion, the gas is collected and inputted into an intelligent feedback pressurization system by means of a parabolic gas intake duct, intelligent feedback and pressurization are performed on the gas working medium by a molecular pump and a gas pump and the medium is stored in a working fluid storage tank so as to supply a hybrid thruster system that consists of seven sets of electric thrusters to generate thrust, which may achieve multiple thrust modes, and achieve the purpose of attitude orbit control and resistance compensation.