A spacecraft thruster that relies on iodine has been successfully tested in an orbiting satellite ( Nature 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y ). The propulsion system is a form of ion drive, which electrically accelerates a jet of ions to generate thrust. Until now, ion drives—used in space probes such as NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroid belt—have typically relied on xenon. Xenon’s heavy atoms deliver a lot of thrust, but the element is rare and expensive. It also requires high-pressure storage, which makes it difficult to downsize xenon thrusters for miniature satellites called CubeSats , says Dmytro Rafalskyi, cofounder of ThrustMe , the French company behind the iodine drive. In contrast, iodine is cheap, is abundant, and can be stored as a solid, enabling much more compact thrusters at less than half the cost of an equivalent xenon system. But iodine is also corrosive, so ThrustMe’s system stashes it in a

    New ion drive offers cheaper, more compact alternative to traditional xenon-based thrusters

    10.1021/cen-09943-scicon6-drive-gr1

    This 10 cm wide propulsion system uses a jet of iodine ions to generate thrust. (Credit: ThrustMe)

    physical chemistryion drivesatellitesGloved hands holding a white, cube-shaped apparatus labeled THRUSTME.


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    Title :

    Iodine thruster makes space debut


    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2021-11-29




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




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