Monodisperse Porous Emitter Materials for Ion Electrospray Propulsion

Electrospray spacecraft propulsion typically uses commercially available porous glass materials for their emitter components. The quality of this emitter material is crucial to the operation of the thrusters, as nonuniformities in the pore distribution can lead to differential propellant flow rates, variation in tip geometries, and less-than-optimal performance of the thruster. The focus of this work is on the development of new porous materials that are more uniform and can mitigate these issues caused by nonuniformities present in current commercially available porous materials. A silica nanoparticle photo-curable resin solution is developed to create high-uniformity porous substrates to improve tip geometry and overall thruster performance.