Description: Exquadrum proposes to develop and demonstrate a highly-controllable, microsatellite scale Hybrid Orbital Propulsion System (HOPS) utilizing nitrous oxide oxidizer and an Exquadrum proprietary solid fuel formulation. The proposed system is high-thrust, readily scales between CubeSat sizes from 3U to 27U, and is capable of achieving impulse densities up to 1,300 Ns/U. The hybrid thruster powering the system is electrically ignited and capable of numerous restarts, with the number of thrust pulses limited only by the propellant supply. During the proposed Phase I project, Exquadrum will create a preliminary design of the propulsion system and conduct a hot-fire demonstration of a heavyweight thruster prototype.

Benefits: Propulsion for deployment of CubeSat constellations, CubeSat operational orbit insertion, maintenance, collision avoidance, de-orbit, propulsion for Explorer class missions

Department of Defense nanosatellite constellation deployment, commercial Earth imaging and remote sensing constellation deployment and orbit maintenance