Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster for small sattelites attitude control

Summary form only given. A low-mass, low-volume propulsion subsystems based on electrically activated micro-thrusters that utilize chemically-inert solid propellants are beneficial for small satellite attitude control applications. Micro-thrusters are able to deliver small impulse bits of about several μNs to satellites and characterized by simplicity, scalability, low cost, low weight and high reliability. In this work measurements of the key parameters of micro-Cathode Arc Thruster (μCAT) are presented and μCAT performance compared with other commercially available thruster technologies operating at the same power range.