New Cluster of Cold Gas Thrusters in Development

admin Aeolos, Cold Gas Thruster, News, Products, RCS

We are currently developing a new cluster of 400mN cold gas thrusters.

Features:

  • Thrust up to 400 mN (depending on input pressure, gas and the used throat size)
  • Any configuration is possible: Direction, canting angle, number of thrusters, with or without additional isolation valve
  • Pressure up to 10 bar
  • Pulsable up to 500 Hz (reaction time ~ 1-2 ms)
  • Lifetime: to be tested
  • No warm up time
  • Available seals: NBR, Silicone, and FKM
  • Low power (2W for one thruster, additional 2.5W when also using an isolation valve)
  • Lightweight: < 180 grams (Configuration as shown: 4 thrusters and isolation valve)
  • No contamination of nearby optics or solar panels when using plain gases
  • Precise, predictable, repeatable
  • ISP depends on the used gas (First tests with CO2 showed a thrust of ~400 mN and a specific impulse of 630 m/s (64s))
  • Compatible with non corrosive gases like H2, N2, He, Ar, CO2, N2O, Propane, Ethane, Coolants like LMP-103S and many more

Cluster of 4 400mN cold gas thrusters with optional additional isolation valve. Thrusters are slightly canted to prevent the exhaust to impact satellite structure. More info’s in the future here.

Small injector 3D printed with BASF’s 316L filament

admin News

Small 3D-printed rocket engine injector finished. Nothing special so far, except it’s not SLM printed… it’s printed in a FDM process using BASF’s new 316L filament with debinding and sintering afterwards. Details are not as good as in SLM but it’s way cheaper! The injector works with N2O/Ethane and is designated for a 600N satellite thruster currently under development @IBB.ch
Info’s about this promising new process can be found at BASF.

First firing of ARIS’ RHEA engine

admin ARIS, News

RHEA, lays the foundation for future hybrid rocket engine developments at ARIS. The built test infrastructure is expandable to thrusts up to 20 kN. RHEA’s first-generation engine focuses on high safety factors and a high degree of modularity to test a variety of different key parameters. A perfect baseline to scale up the engine and make it flight-ready in the future. RHEA’s successor IRIDE is currently under development and will deliver 5kN of thrust.

A still from the video above. One can see shock diamonds, and diamonds are forever 😉