N2O is third best oxidiser behind LOX and H2O2, specific impulse with kerosene is around 310 seconds.
The propulsion system consists of a propellant tank and five thrusters that each produce 0.22 pounds of force. It uses AF-M315E, a nontoxic fuel developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory that provides higher performance than conventional propellants like hydrazine that are also hazardous to handle.“This propulsion system delivery marks the success of more than 10 years of research and development,” Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of advanced space and launch programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said in a prepared statement. “Following extensive testing, we ended up with a propulsion design using a new, green monopropellant, which will fly into orbit in 2016.”
NASA recently completed several hot-fire tests with thrusters powered by two different green propellants with the potential to replace hydrazine. Both are ionic liquid-based blends that are less toxic and less flammable than hydrazine, which makes them easier and less costly to store, to handle and to fuel up spacecraft before launch. Additionally, the new propellants offer higher performance, delivering more thrust for a given quantity of propellant than hydrazine...For this project, the GPIM team tested two different sized thrusters (1 and 22 Newton) with AF-M315E. Five of the 1-Newton thrusters will fly on GPIM.....A team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently completed tests with both 5 Newton and 22 Newton thruster built by ECAPS and powered by LMP-103S. Engineers fired the 22 Newton thruster 35 times under varying conditions and monitored results with infrared cameras...
SkySat-3 was the first commercial S/C to fly a HPGP systemECAPS’ next generation 1N ‘GP’ thruster will be incorporated into future SkySat platformsProgress on bringing both smaller and larger HPGP thrusters to market continues