aerospace.mtu.eduMTU Aerospace – Aerospace Research and Development at Michigan Tech

Toggle navigation Home Research Ionic Liquid Ferrofluid Microthrusters Microfluidic Visualization Xenon Hall Thrusters Condensable Propellant Hall Thrusters Regenerable Field Emission Cathodes Laser Thomson Scattering Computational Ferro/Electrohydrodynamics Spacecraft Oculus-ASR Auris Stratus Enterprise Whats is the Enterprise Who We Are Teams Projects Looking to Join Alumni Supporters Facilities Xenon/Krypton Facility Condensable Propellant Facility Micropropulsion Facility 1 (Ultra-High Vacuum) Micropropulsion Facility 2 High Magnification Imaging Setup Milli-Newton Thrust Stand Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer Spacecraft Clean Assembly Area Teams Director Graduate Students Undergraduate Students Publications Journal Articles Dissertations and Theses Conference Proceedings News Who We Are Michigan Tech Aerospace is a collection of research, development, and educational laboratories dedicated to advancing spacecraft technology. Doctoral research students build and test plasma thrusters that are used to propel satellites as large as a school bus and as small as a smart phone. Undergraduates apply fundamentals of Systems Engineering to design, build, and fly small satellites for agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense. Faculty experts push the limits of what is possible to solve problems for government and industry customers. Want to learn more? Take a look around…. Ion Space Propulsion Lab Next-generation Plasma Thrusters for Spacecraft ISP Lab Research and Facilities Ionic Liquid Ferrofluid Microthrusters The Isp Lab invented and patented a novel micropropulsion technology where magnetic fields shape superparamagnetic ionic liquids into self-assembling miniature ion thrusters. This unique form of electrospray propulsion is being transitioned from the laboratory to flight-ready devices that will be used to propel cubesats. Condensable Propellant Hall Thrusters The Ion Space Propulsion laboratory has been conducting research into condensable-propellant-fueled Hall thrusters since 2004. Bismuth, zinc and magnesium thrusters have been successfully tested using the condensable propellant test facility. Ultra-high Vacuum Facility State-of-the-art space simulation chambers are used to develop and investigate plasma thrusters as small as a postage stamp. Facilities are capable of maintaining a vacuum almost as pure as that experienced in orbit and examining how the thruster performs in this environment. Xenon/Krypton Facility 2-meter-diameter by 4-meter-long space simulation chambers are used to test the performance of full-scale plasma thrusters that operate on gaseous propellants such as xenon and krypton. Sensitive thrust stands can measure the propulsive force with accuracy better than 1 millli-Newton. Small Satellites. Big Ideas. Students design, build, and operate small satellites for government and industry customers Aerospace Enterprise Projects and Facilities Auris Microsatellite A microsat for characterizing RF-signal emissions Stratus Cubesat A 3U-cubesat for infrared cloud imaging Oculus-ASR Microsatellite A Microsatellite for Space Situational Awareness research Spacecraft Clean Assembly Area Class-100,000 clean room for flight hardware handling Recent News from MTU Aerospace NIST Symposium Honoring David Wineland September 18, 2018 If there was an international nice-guy prize, David Wineland probably could win that too. As... CPT Elizabeth Van Heusden Successfully Defends May 16, 2018 Congratulations to Elizabeth Van Heusden on successfully defending her thesis and obtaining a MS.... Dr. Brandon Jackson Successfully Defends April 10, 2018 Congratulations to Brandon Jackson on successfully defending his dissertation and obtaining a PhD.... ISP Lab Researcher Interviewed by LiveScience January 15, 2018 Ph.D. Candidate and Isp Lab researcher Brandon Jackson was recently interviewed for an article on... More News © 2016. All rights reserved. Director: Lyon B. King...