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A Protoflight High Specific Power Electric Propulsion System

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Contract: D11PC20180
Agency Tracking Number: 10SB1-0381
Amount: $1,124,999.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: SB101-012
Solicitation Number: 2010.1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2010
Award Year: 2011
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2011-09-08
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2013-09-07
Small Business Information
8551 154th Ave NE
Redmond, WA -
United States
DUNS: 044381445
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 David Kirtley
 Principal Investigator
 (425) 867-8900
 dkirtley@msnwllc.com
Business Contact
 John Slough
Title: Director of Research
Phone: (425) 867-8900
Email: sloughj@msnwllc.com
Research Institution
 Stub
Abstract

The Electromagnetic Plasmoid Thruster (EMPT) has demonstrated the ability to ionize, electromagnetically accelerate, and eject a broad range of complex and chemically-reactive molecular gases, including monopropellants. EMPT has the potential to dramatically increase the operational range of existing electric propulsion (EP) systems in both power density, power throttling, and propellant choice. Proposed here is a Phase II program to develop protoflight hardware for the EMPT thruster to be flown on FalconSAT-6. This experiment will demonstrate the in-space operation of a high specific power pulsed thruster operating at 1 kW average power on Xenon. A ground-based multi-mode development will demonstrate the electromagnetic operation of the EMPT on monopropellants. The highly scalable EMPT represents a dramatic advancement for EP technology and has direct applications for 1 kW to 1 MW EP thrusters

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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