QT-PPT - Quick Turn Pulsed Plasma Thruster

Recent FCC deorbit rule changes require deorbiting within 5 years of end of useful lifetime. The CU Aerospace (CUA) Quick Turn Pulsed Plasma Thruster (QT-PPT) is a low-cost, low-lead time, solid propellant-based deorbit solution. At a baseline size of only 0.67U, it is capable of deorbiting a 6 kg spacecraft from 1300 km. Power and thrust are fully throttleable from 0 to 20 W with no warmup time, the total impulse is easily customized to meet customer volume requirements, and the unit is capable of ±5° electromagnetic thrust vectoring.

A smaller, even lower cost “disc” configuration is also under development. This configuration takes advantage of the “tuna can” volume and is only 0.5U. Its total impulse is estimated to be 1100 N-s, enough to lower a 4 kg CubeSat from 900 km to 400 km. For both variants, the entire system including the PPU is tightly integrated onto a stack of PCBs approximately 0.5U in size which enables lead times as low as 6 weeks.