Effect of ambient pressure on the performance of a resistojet

Abstract

Tests were conducted to investigate the effect of ambient pressure on the measured thrust of a prototype resistojet. The tests were performed using both heated and unheated nitrogen as the propellant at flow rates of 0.0379 and 0.0759 g/s. For the cold flow tests there was no effect on specific impulse over a range of ambient pressures from 1 to 400 microns. The results for the hot flow tests did show as much as a 7 percent variation in specific impulse over the same range of ambient pressures.