Ion iodine engine successfully tested in orbit for the first time
Representatives of the French startup ThrustMe announced that they have successfully tested an iodine engine directly in near-earth orbit.
It was installed on the CubeSat spacecraft, launched into orbit on November 6, 2020. Successful tests and further prospects of the iodine engine will be discussed in this article.
Why is the iodine engine developed?
At the moment, most of the spacecraft use the so-called ionic engines, a distinctive feature of which is a rather weak thrust, but at the same time especially economical consumption fuel.
This allows ion engines to operate for decades, constantly adjusting the orbit of satellites and smoothly accelerating spacecraft to incredible speeds, allowing them to reach other planets.
The principle of operation of ion engines lies in the release of a jet stream of ionized particles, which are accelerated by an electric field. These engines use mainly xenon, an inert gas, which has massive ions. The only problem is that xenon is rare and very expensive to obtain gas.
This significantly limits the use of ion engines, which makes many scientists look for alternative solutions.
And at the moment, the most suitable candidate for use is iodine - a fairly convenient, safe and at the same time widespread, and, therefore, a cheap element.
The development of such iodine engines is carried out by the Russian RSC Energia, the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, as well as the French startup ThrustMe. So it was the French who have already successfully sent their iodine engine NPT30-12 into orbit, which was installed on the device CubeSat. The satellite was launched into orbit on November 6, 2020, where it was successfully tested.
What is the advantage of iodine engines over ionic
So, the main advantage of iodine over xenon is the ability to store iodine in a solid state. Due to this fact, the iodine engine turned out to be quite simple and compact.
So the NPT 30-12 engine turned out to be 96x96x106 mm and weighing only 1.2 kg, while the weight of the fuel itself is included here. At the same time, the entire structure easily fit into a standard CubeSat 1U case.
At the same time, the engineers said that the engine withstood all the loads and perfectly solved all the tasks. The only open question remains whether the problem with high corrosion has been solved, which, during long-term operation, is quite capable of destroying critical components.
Well, if all the problematic points of iodine engines are resolved, then soon such engines will find wide application in the space industry.
After all, now all spacecraft for deep space and hundreds of near-earth vehicles are equipped with it is ion engines, and, therefore, the demand for such installations will only grow with each year.
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