Satellite Engine Could Breathe Earth's Atmosphere to Stay in Orbit Forever
New Satellite Engine Could Use Earth's Atmosphere to Stay in Orbit Indefinitely
Francesco Romano's PhD research at the University of Stuttgart proposes an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system that uses the thin air in very low Earth orbit as fuel. His RF helicon plasma thruster, with a specular intake that captures 94.3% of particles, needs no neutralizer and runs on 50-60W. Models suggest it could keep satellites aloft indefinitely between 190-250 km, and even above Mars.
The clear winner, both in terms of collection efficiency and alignment sensitivity, was the specular intake.
- chris_va
Very much not a new idea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_Earth_orbit
Though fun to see. More interesting than the station keeping (indefinite part) is that it enables ~100km orbits, which are ~5x closer than what remote sensing satellites use today and thus could get 5x the resolution for the same instrument.
- rf15
Basically the attempt to make a Bussard Ramjet work? I just wonder if the drag isn't just too much to overcome, can't wait for their prototype results.
- PowerElectronix
The thing is is this kind of engine does better than a regular one +big tank of propeller in the lifetime of a VLEO satellite, which due to newer regulation by the US is 5 years, so you don't really need eve a big tank