I-Corps: Solid-state Flow-controlled Electric Thruster System for Small Satellites

I-Corps：小型卫星的固态流量控制电动推进器系统

• 批准号: 2403794
• 负责人: Paulo Lozano
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2403794&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Solid; state; Flow; controlled

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a small satellite bus equipped with novel solid-state propulsion technology to enable provision of remote sensing data to customers using much smaller satellites that are significantly less costly to deploy in large numbers. Satellites are a crucial provider of Earth observational data to various end users across defense, agriculture, energy, and other broad markets. Fundamentally, the frequency and latency of this data depends on the rate of downlink availability of the satellites. This means satellites in lower orbits, or many more satellites in higher orbits, can provide more frequent “new” data to end users. CubeSats, or satellites about the size of a shoebox, could provide more coverage and better data frequency than larger satellites for lower cost if they are able to maintain their orbits for long durations (greater than 1 year). This longevity requires a propulsion-equipped CubeSat bus to be developed for use in orbital remote sensing. The potential impacts of this technology are targeted towards the global satellite market and the downstream end-users of satellite data though there may be additional applications in biomedical and microfluidic markets as well.This I-Corps project is based on the development of an entirely solid-state, flow-controlled, electric thruster system for use in CubeSats. This class of satellite is typically only in orbit for about a year and is rarely utilized for commercial space applications due to lack of propulsion capabilities and orbital limitations on lifetime. The core technology is a solid-state flow control device developed to offer the same level of fluid control and precision as is available on much larger, pressure-driven mechanical propulsion systems currently used on many much larger commercial satellites. A digital microfluidic device has been researched, developed, and tested in a lab environment to confirm feasibility. This technology offers the ability to repeatably flow and stop flow of liquid propellants to electrospray thrusters in a vacuum environment without the need for much larger pressure systems or mechanical valves, minimizing the impact of previous scaling limitations for satellites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发配备了新型固态推进技术的小型卫星总线，以便使用较小的卫星卫星向客户提供远程灵敏度数据，这些卫星在大量内部部署的成本大大降低。卫星是在国防，农业，能源和其他广泛市场的各个最终用户的地球观察数据的至关重要提供者。从根本上讲，该数据的频率和延迟取决于卫星的下行链路可用性速率。这意味着低轨道中的卫星，或更高轨道中的更多卫星可以为最终用户提供更频繁的“新”数据。与鞋盒大小相同的立方体或卫星，如果能够长时间保持轨道（大于1年），则可以比更低的卫星提供更多的覆盖范围和更好的数据频率。这种寿命需要为轨道遥感而开发配备有推进的立方体总线。该技术的潜在影响针对全球卫星市场以及卫星数据的下游最终用户，尽管也可能在生物医学和微流体市场中有其他应用。这一I-Corps项目基于一个完全固态，流动控制的，电流的，电力促进剂系统供立方体使用。这类卫星通常仅在轨道上大约一年，并且由于缺乏推进能力和寿命的轨道限制，因此很少用于商业空间应用。核心技术是一种固态流控制装置，旨在提供与当前在许多更大的商业卫星上使用的更大的，压力驱动的机械推进系统相同水平的流体控制和精度。已经在实验室环境中研究，开发和测试了一种数字微流体设备，以确认可行性。这项技术提供了在真空环境中反复流动和停止液体推进剂到电喷雾剂的能力，而无需更大的压力系统或机械阀，从而最大程度地降低了先前的缩放限制对卫星的影响。这奖反映了NSF的法规任务，并认为通过基金会的知识优点和广泛的critia crietia criter criter criter critia criter criter critia criter critia criter critia criter critia criter critia criter critia crietia cripia cripia criteria criter critia cripitia均反映了对卫星的影响。