Life Test Results of a MONARC 5 1 lbf Monopropellant Thruster with Heraeus Catalyst

Abstract

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will be launching the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite in the fall of 2014. The spacecraft propulsion subsystem includes eight MONARC 5 monopropellant hydrazine thrusters. These thrusters are the first flight thrusters to contain Heraeus catalyst instead of Shell 405. The SMAP thruster performance requirements were such that a Life Test was conducted over 57 days by, the JPL Propulsion and Fluid Flight Systems Group, to demonstrate that the thruster performance met the Project requirements and that the thruster performance was comparable to the Shell 405 heritage.