In order to promote the preheating effect of N2O monopropellant thruster

the structure of the thruster was improved and inner-heating mode was set up. The preheating experiment of the thruster with inner-heater was conducted in a vacuum chamber

and the catalyst was heated to 260℃(533K) with 10W after 5800s

confirming the feasibility and advantage of the inner-heating mode. 3-D model of the thruster was built and finite element software was utilized to analyze the preheating process. Time-dependent temperature filed of the structure was obtained. Numerical result agrees well with the experimental data

which demonstrates the accuracy of the simulation model. Then a simplified system model of the thruster with inner-heater was designed and 10

5

3W power were utilized to simulate the preheating process in space environment. The result shows that the catalyst will be heated to 250℃ with 10W and 5W power in 3600s

which can provide some references for the practical application of N2O monopropellant thruster.