Thrust and electrical power from solid propellant microrockets. 2. Actuators

Progress has been made in the development of flying silicon. Fully self-contained MEMS rockets have been designed, fabricated and tested. A peak thrust of 4 mN was obtained from a rocket with a mass of 0.98 grams. This rocket was comprised of a 3.2 mm inside diameter ceramic tube bonded to a silicon chip containing the rocket nozzle, igniter and an array of twelve thermopiles. One thermopile was measured during combustion and yielded 20 micro Watts of electrical power during a combustion event of approximately 10 seconds. Third-generation devices have demonstrated liftoff.