Patent ID: 7665292

Claim:
A thruster with electro-thermal thrust augmentation, for use in EVs and configured to operate upon command, the thruster having an exterior and an interior with a decomposition section upstream and a heating section downstream, the thruster comprising: in the decomposition section: a propellant injection head coupled in fluid communication to a propellant line entering the decomposition section for injection of propellant therein, and a catalyst configured as a porous bed disposed downstream of the propellant injection head, for exothermic decomposition of the propellant into gaseous products, in the heating section: an electric heating module having at least one electric resistor configured for heating the gaseous products, and a nozzle having a throat and an expansion cone, extending downstream away from the heating section for accelerating heated gaseous products to the exterior of the thruster for providing thrust, on the exterior of the thruster: a blow-down pressurized propellant tank fluidly coupled to and upstream of the propellant line, a control valve for controlling duration of propellant supply via the propellant line, a flow restrictor through which the propellant flows, disposed downstream of the propellant tank, a radiation shield substantially enveloping a closed sealed chamber of the thruster, and an electric power source controllably coupled to the heating module and operating at a nominal power level, wherein the thruster is configured as a shell having a shell exterior and a shell interior that forms the closed sealed chamber which is divided into the decomposition section and the heating section, and in the heating section: wherein the at least one electric resistor is accommodated either directly in an additional porous catalytic bed having an additional catalyst or within a concentric ceramic tube and operative as a heat exchanger, whereby the gaseous products are heated by direct contact.