The Moon Dust Rocket Thruster is a new take on low-thrust space propulsion. A propulsion system is a key component of a spacecraft that provides thrust in a controlled manner. There are different roles that propulsion systems can provide in space travel, including orbit transfers, flight corrections, and planet or moon launches. Propulsion systems ideally affect no other part of the spacecraft in terms of vibration or unwanted rotations. For lunar missions, it would be ideal to use a propellant found on the moon. Currently, propulsion systems require fuels that cannot be found on the moon. This requires all lunar missions to bring large amounts of fuel. This is incredibly inefficient and expensive. The goals of this project are to design and prototype a propulsion system that uses propellants found on the moon, and to have this prototype act as a guide to similar propulsion systems in the future. The resulting design will have the potential to be expanded upon for more efficient and higher power designs. There are no flaws in the design that, for example, make it impossible to spin faster than a certain speed or make any spacecraft fail its mission when used correctly.
Solidworks Design
Assembled Rocket Thruster
Electrical Assembly
Team Members
Andrew Haverly,Espen Peterson,Grant Croft,Kenneth Mihalyov,Nick Quattrociocchi,Patrick McMore,Samantha DeRosa
