New Cluster of Cold Gas Thrusters in Development

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.

Featuring new products: Cold Gas Thrusters

We added a new page in our products section: Cold Gas Thrusters. There is the extremely fast 200 mN thruster and the 20 N thruster which is currently under development.
To demonstrate the extreme fast actuation time we let the thruster play Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube” (Blaue Donau) based on the opening music of Space odyssey 2001. Depending on the played tone it opens up to 2000 times a second fed by 20 bar Nitrogen. The solenoid is driven by a in-house developed microcontroller board.
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wip7s4FlyOo