Naphthalene as a Cubesat Cold Gas Thruster Propellant

The “cubesat” form factor (multiples of 10 × 10 × 10 cm³ volume and 1.33 kg mass) has been adopted as the defacto standard for a cost effective and modular, nano-satellite platform. Many commercial options exist for nearly all components required to build such satellite; however, there is a limited range of thruster options that suit the power and size restrictions of a cubesat. This work presents the design, implementation and direct thrust measurements of a proof of concept cubesat cold gas thruster system using naphthalene (C₁₀H₈) as the propellant. The proposed design is optimized for simplicity to match the requirement of entry level cubesat missions, yet, due to the properties of naphthalene, it can achieve a total impulse in the order of tens of newton-seconds.