For the first time, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth, reports the European Space Agency (ESA).
Specifically, it has been used in an electric thruster that controls the satellite’s height above Earth.
Iodine is described as being less expensive and simpler to use than traditional propellants. This means that small satellites, such as CubeSats, would be able to do propulsive operations and that bigger satellites could also gain by reducing both the complexity and cost of a propulsion system.
The space agency specifically hopes the innovation could help with the issue of space junk. The idea is that it could more easily enable satellites to self-destruct cheaply at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.
“The technology could also be used to boost the mission lifetime of small CubeSats that monitor agricultural crops on Earth or entire mega-constellations of nanosats that provide global internet access, by raising their orbits when they begin to drift towards the planet.”
The technology was developed by the French company ThrustMe, a spin-off company from the École Polytechnique and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and was supported by ESA through its programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES).
ThrustMe launched its iodine thruster on a commercial research nanosat called SpaceTy Beihangkongshi-1 that went into space in November 2020. It was test fired earlier this month before being used to change the orbit of the satellite.
ThrustMe outlines three main advantages of using iodine over xenon and other propellants:
- Iodine is stored as a solid, unlike xenon which is stored under pressure. Therefore, no sloshing, no explosion risk, no cumbersome launch qualifications and no intervention needed at the launch pad.
- It is the least reactive of the halogens, thus it is not a metal and will not deposit on conductive surfaces (as the first electric propulsion systems did when they were propelled with cesium).
- Iodine cost 10 to 100 times less than xenon – just to buy the same amount
Source: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/iodine-serves-to-propel-satellite-in-space-2021-01/