Russian ultra-small plasma engine from MEPhI will be tested in space by the end of the year
Engineers of MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) are actively developing an ultra-small plasma engine specially designed for nanosatellites. The main problem was not to create an engine, but to make it fully work from a small capacitor battery.
And it was the Russian specialists, and they have successfully created an ultra-small plasma engine, which they want to test in space before the end of the current of the year.
The problem of nanosatellites and their solution
At the moment, we can observe a real boom in the so-called nanosatellites - spacecraft, the weight of which does not exceed 10 kg. So only since the beginning of 2021, about 150 satellites of the CubeSat format have been launched into orbit - the most popular type of ultra-small satellites.
So most of these nano-devices are used to probe the Earth, and the main problem is devices lies in the fact that they are launched into orbit by corny throwing dozens of them out of the rocket in one location.
For high-quality work, they need to be evenly distributed over the orbit, which means you need to change their speed in orbit. Currently, drop-down panels are used to change the speed and rotate them perpendicular to the movement of the satellite for maximum deceleration, or in parallel for a slight deceleration.
The method has one, but a very significant drawback. Due to deceleration, satellites often lose altitude and inevitably go out of orbit and burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere.
And therefore, it is required to constantly launch all new satellites to replace the burned out ones.
The only way out of this situation is to install a miniature engine on the satellite. But all the existing engines are designed to work on large spacecraft, and they consume too much energy and the panels on microsatellites are not able to provide them with electricity in principle. And liquid engines are prohibited for safety reasons.
That is why scientists have been struggling to create miniature engines for so long and sometimes to no avail.
Russian engineers have found a solution
Russian specialists suggested using polyacetal plastic, not explosive compounds, as fuel in a plasma engine. gradually burning out, it is converted into plasma, and then ejected from the engine, thus creating the necessary thrust, which moves the mini-satellite.
In fairness, it should be said that the idea of using plastic is not new and was proposed by Soviet specialists and tested in 1964 at the Zond-2 interplanetary station, which was sent to Mars by Soviet Union.
In the Soviet version, not polyacetal was used for engines, but ordinary fluoroplastic. The main feature of this material was its high density, but there was also a serious drawback.
So for the use of fluoroplastic in the form of fuel, a large discharge current is needed. If the current is not enough, then a carbon film will form on the surface of the plastic, which has excellent current conductivity, which means that it can provoke a short circuit, and the motor will simply come out of building.
Soviet engineers solved the problem by installing large and powerful pulse capacitors, but they cannot be used on micro-satellites in any way.
The idea of the MEPhI engineers was to create an engine with dimensions of 83x83x50 mm, and to solve the problem of film formation, they began to look for another type of plastic. And during the search, a polyacetal was found, which has a chain (-C-O-C-O-C-), which does not allow the formation of carbon film (some amount of oil or oil is formed, which does not conduct an electric current, and therefore is not dangerous for engine).
In addition, an external magnet system made of copper coil was installed on the motor, which allowed limiting the discharge current and maintaining acceptable motor efficiency. So, according to preliminary calculations, the engine resource can be about 1000 hours of operation.
And finally, compact and lightweight capacitors were installed.
Prospects for the Russian engine
Over the coming months, engineers will continue to refine the engine to improve efficiency and increasing the stock of plastic, and at the end of the year the engine should be tested on two satellites on the platform at once OrbitKraft-Pro. In addition, the developers already have preliminary agreements with the private space company Sputniks.
All tests should be completed by the summer of 2022, and after that it will be possible to talk about the serial production of engines.
We wish good luck to our specialists and hope that they will succeed, and most of the nano satellites will work on our engines.
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