Happy to be part of that journey!
Space Tech Europe Bremen and Formnext Frankfurt 2024
Attending Space Propulsion Conference in Glasgow (20-23. May 2024)
We will attend the Space Propulsion Conference in Glasgow 20-23. May 2024. This will be the Preliminary event program. Happy to see you there.
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.
Liquid propulsion at ARIS
ARIS (ARIS – Akademische Raumfahrt Initiative Schweiz) finished two projects related to liquid propulsion.
- LEA, building and testing a mobile test stand for liquid rocket engines up 1.5 kN. It was successfully tested with an Ethanol/N2O firing. This was a project with volunteers of ARIS members.
- PROMETHEUS, a ETH focus project with the aim to modify the LEA test trailer for usage with liquid oxygen. Design and testing a regeneratively cooled 700 N engine.
On both projects our Bruno Berger acted as an advisor. Unfortunately the contract with ETH ended this this year, so it might be the last project we are involved in. Nevertheless, the last years with the students of ETH/ARIS were extremely inspiring and cool!
Prometheus firing
Prometheus recap of the project
Visiting Paris Air Show 2023
We had a great time at the Paris Air Show in le Bourget with lot’s of discussion with manufacturers and suppliers
Our torch igniter got mentioned on everyday astronaut YouTube Channel
One of our torch igniters got mentioned by everyday astronaut (one of the mayor channels about space related news). They did nor ask for permission, but hey… we are still proud of it. Thanks Max for pointing me to the clip.
The original clip is here on our YT channel:
3-2-1 Ignition! ARIS launches it’s HELEVTIA Rocket at the Spaceport America Cup 2022
Last week team HELVETIA/ASTREA launched it’s rocket at the Spaceport America Cup 2022 in New Mexico. It got to an altitude fg 10’300 meters (33’800 feet) Congratulation and thanks that I can be part of that journey!
The rocket is screaming (due to combustion instabilities… we knew about that. But hey, it survived!).
This reminds to the Tie Fighter from the Start Wars movies 😁
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