conceptual design of microwave electrothermal thruster

The microwave electrothermal thruster is the propellant that converts the microwave energy into thermal energy. Nowadays, with the development of technology, electric thrusters are very important in terms of producing high specific impact and low consumption. These thrusters are capable of producing acceptable thrust over a long period of time that are suitable for helical orbital transfer missions. In this type of propulsion, the propellant gas is heated and expanded, which produces propulsion force. In this paper, the conceptual design process of a microwave electrothermal thruster is presented. The propulsion system includes propulant gas, propulsion storage tank, amplification chamber and power generation source, which includes batteries and solar arrays. In the text of the article, the method of calculating the mass and the specifications of each part are presented in detail. Finally, in order to validate the conceptual design process presented in this study, the necessary studies have been discussed.Conceptual design has been done for a 100 kg satellite, which is desirable to travel in a week from an orbital height of 300 to 800 km during a spiral treansfer. The propulsion system and mass of each subsystem are obtained.