The team of French researchers has developed and for the first time experienced an ion engine in which iodine is used as rocket fuel. The article of scientists was published in the Nature magazine.
Currently used in satellites Electric rocket engines create a thrust using electricity to accelerate gas-propellant ions – most often xenon. However, it is contained on Earth in minor quantities, requires expensive production and storage under pressure. A possible alternative to him can be iodine -one cheaper and more common, it can be stored in solid form.
Experts from the French company ThrustMe have developed a power plant on a iodine and installed it on a Cubesat satellite, which was launched by the Chinese “Changzhlen-6” rocket in November 2020 at a solar-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 480 kilometers above the ground. In just 2021, 11 test starts of the engine were conducted in space in space with a duration of 80-90 minutes. Iodine showed himself not only competitive combustible, researchers note, but also demonstrated a higher degree of ionization than xenon.
According to researchers, the test results will help to accelerate the introduction of alternative sources of rocket combustion of the space industry. Iodine allows miniaturize and simplify the motor systems, they emphasize.