Design & development of cold gas propulsion system for Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS)

This paper describes the work performed at the satellite research and development centre, Karachi to produce cold gas propulsion system for prototype of Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS), which is currently under development phase. This system mainly consists of one Aluminum 6061 propellant tank which stores 2 Kg of gaseous nitrogen as propellant at 100 bars. This tank is designed, developed and tested by structure/propulsion/thermal (S/P/T) section of SRDC-K. The nitrogen gas is supplied to eight 1 N Thrusters at a steady regulated pressure of 8 bars. It passes through a two-stage pressure regulator assembly, and a solenoid valve. Thrusters closing and opening time is less than 7 ms and specific impulse is 73 s. These thrusters are tested on Thrusters Static Bench developed by S/P/T section. This system has passed all the required qualification and acceptance tests. The cold gas propulsion system represents an important advance in propulsion technology suitable for small satellites. As a result of this work, the size, mass and power requirements has been reduced.