Rotating Tip Jet Drone for Lunar Surface Operations.
We are introducing a drone for vacuum- and near-vacuum applications that is driven by two rotors with slightly tilted, tip mounted monopropellant thrusters. The arrangement is controlled via regulation of the continuous thrust and a tilting mechanism for each rotor. It is able to generate excessive electric power from the main propulsion system and comes without actuated valves. Propellant is being fed to the thrusters via centrifugal pressure build up that exceeds the limit of a check-valve. For initiation the rotors are spun up by two brushless motors which act in generator mode as soon as a certain level of thrust was reached. The generators are regulating peak thrust and two servos are controlling rotor tilt.
