Giving CubeSats Electric Propulsion

eldavojohn writes "Thirteen picosatellites were launched back in June of 2006 with the price coming down dramatically in the years since. But the Rubik's cube sized devices have no mobility, meaning once they're put in orbit, they stay in that orbit. The big problem is that traditional chemical propulsion systems are too large for ten-centimeter sided cubes weighing a kilogram. A new electric propulsion system designed by Paulo Lozano of MIT might change that. " "The article explains how it works: 'Lozano's design relies on electrospraying, a physics process that uses electricity to extract positive and negative ions from a liquid salt that is created in a laboratory and serves as the system's propellant. The liquid contains no solvent, such as water, and can be charged electrically with no heat involved. Whereas other electric propulsion systems charge the ions in a chamber on the satellite, the ionic liquid in Lozano's design has already been charged on the ground, which is why his system doesn't need a chamber. Electricity is then converted from the main power source of the CubeSat, typically batteries or a solar panel, and applied to a tiny structure roughly the size of a postage stamp. This thin panel is made of about 1,000 porous metal structures that resemble needles and have several grams of the ionic liquid on them. By applying voltage to the needles, an electric field is created that extracts the ions from the liquid, accelerates them at very high speeds and forces them to fly away. This process creates an ionic force strong enough to produce thrust.'"

Comments

Pico

[Brian Gordon]

What, we've exhausted the marketability of the buzzword nano and have stepped it up to pico? Somehow I doubt that regular satellites mass 10^12 kilograms.

Re:Pico

[sakdoctor]

Marketing bullshit is currently up to femto.
See femtocell.

Re:Pico

[lastchance_000]

Actually, it's a typo. It should have read pikasatellites, from Pikachu. They fit in your hand, send out bursts of highly charged particles...it makes sense, no?

Re:CubeSats are a revolution

[Angst Badger]

Yeah... Just what we need -- more tiny objects in orbit around Earth. We have enough problems avoiding crashing into the big satellites we can actually see with radar, let alone worrying about a few hundred rubic's cubes up there.

That was my first thought, too. My second thought, after reading TFA, was that this guy has slightly modified the basic design of an inkjet printer and figured out a way to avoid having his business cut into by refill vendors.

Re:why even use propelant ?

[hguorbray]

You silly SCA types.

Just because you have a trebuchet that doesn't mean that anything that fits in the bucket is payload. -or maybe it does...

-I'm Just Sayin'

Re:CubeSats are a revolution

[girlintraining]

That was my first thought, too. My second thought, after reading TFA, was that this guy has slightly modified the basic design of an inkjet printer and figured out a way to avoid having his business cut into by refill vendors.

At $6,000+ a gallon, we should consider using rocket fuel in our inkjet printers instead. It'd be cheaper...

Re:why even use propelant ?

[PitaBred]

Not anything that fits in the bucket is payload, but anything that IS in the bucket is payload... note to self: stay away from flingy end of trebuchets with SCA people in attendance.