This paper presents the design methodology and performance testing of an additively manufactured resistojet operating on hydrogen as propellant. Additive manufacturing allows to produce complex monolithic resistors, resulting in reliable high efficiency thrusters. The concept, to be used in combination with advanced cryogenic storage technologies, is proposed for short time and high specific impulse orbit transfers. The simplified two-dimensional thermal design approach adopted is discussed, and its application to the engineering of the resistor is shown for both Inconel 718 and tungsten. The paper reports the performance testing of the proof-of-concept version of the thruster, manufactured in Inconel 718. Experiments on hydrogen show near ideal performance, demonstrating a peak thermal efficiency of 96%. The thruster proves the validity of the design methodology proposed, and the feasibility of the approach to develop monolithic additively manufactured hydrogen resistojets as main propulsion units.

本文介绍了以氢气作为推进剂运行的增材制造的抵抗射流的设计方法和性能测试。增材制造允许生产复杂的单片电阻器，从而产生可靠的高效推进器。提出将该概念与先进的低温存储技术结合使用，以实现短时间和高比冲脉冲轨道转移。讨论了采用的简化的二维热设计方法，并显示了其在Inconel 718和钨合金电阻器工程中的应用。该论文报告了Inconel 718制造的概念证明型推进器的性能测试。氢实验表明性能接近理想，证明峰值热效率为96％。