SPROD – Solid Rocket Motor for Deorbitation
Operation within the densely populated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region can be threatened by growing space debris population. In order to be compliant with the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, modern satellites require end-of-life strategies, preferably deorbitation. A direct manoeuvre is also advised in order to limit no-ground casualties risk. Development of a edicated Solid Rocket Motor, for the European Space Agency (ESA) is carried out by the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation and its partners in Poland. This 250 N class motor is designed to be scalable and used in clusters, enabling application for wide range of spacecrafts. High density specific impulse and reliability are characteristic for this type of propulsion. Solid particles generation was mitigated via use of a high performance non-aluminized propellant. This motor was designed for long in-orbit storage and can be supplemented with a Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system.
SPROD motor:
-Thrust - 250 N
-Action time - 400 s
-Total mass - 50 kg
-Specific impulse - 283 s
-Total impulse - 82,5 kNs
