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New Thruster Aims to Help Microsats Bust Out of the Kiddy Pool
space.com ^ | August 12, 2018 09:32am ET | Debra Werner, Space News |

Posted on 08/12/2018 10:15:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin

What's unusual about the technology Stellar Exploration developed with Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego is its power, said Mike Loucks, president of Space Exploration Engineering, a Seattle company that specializes in cis-lunar, lunar and deep space missions. The new thruster fueled with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide is designed to move a 12-unit cubesat, which weighs about 28 kilograms, at a speed of two kilometers per second.

"The miniaturized bi-prop system Stellar has developed suddenly allows cubesats to take on the missions normally associated with much larger and more expensive spacecraft," Loucks said by email. "None of the currently marketed propulsion systems for cubesats are even in the same ballpark. This is a serious, grown-up propulsion system based on well-known technology that allows microsatellites to bust out of the kiddy pool."

Stellar Exploration designed the new bi-propellant thruster with a low-pressure tank to ease range safety concerns. Compliance with launch safety regulations is inherent in the design, Svitek said.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: microsats; thruster

1 posted on 08/12/2018 10:15:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Cis-lunar is a term that I have never heard before. And I have been an astronomy nerd for 50 years.


2 posted on 08/12/2018 10:34:23 PM PDT by webheart (Grammar police on the scene.)
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To: BenLurkin

Bi-propellant is suspiciously unfamiliar as well.


3 posted on 08/12/2018 10:35:50 PM PDT by webheart (Grammar police on the scene.)
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To: webheart

Cis-lunar means not homo-lunar.


4 posted on 08/12/2018 10:36:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: webheart

Bi-propellant.

Um.....


5 posted on 08/12/2018 10:37:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Hypergolic mixture which ignites as soon as the two components come in contact with each other.


6 posted on 08/12/2018 11:14:45 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: reg45
Hypergolic mixture which ignites as soon as the two components come in contact with each other.

Oh yeah, talk dirty to me (° ͜ʖ°)

7 posted on 08/12/2018 11:21:15 PM PDT by catbertz
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To: reg45

Long history of usages. German ME-163’s in WW-II used such a system for terrific acceleration in a small package. (I started to use the phrase “explosive acceleration,” which would have been appropriate some of the time!)


8 posted on 08/13/2018 2:17:04 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: BenLurkin

No ‘mo moon?

Thats gonna upset folk with priapal uranus complexes.


9 posted on 08/13/2018 3:29:05 AM PDT by Adder (Mr. Franklin: We are trying to get the Republic back!)
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To: webheart

In chemistry the prefix cis- is the opposite of trans-. I’m assuming that since a “trans-neptunian object” is one that orbits beyond Neptune then a cis-lunar orbit would be one lower than the moon, which encompasses most satellites. But then why bother with the complication?


10 posted on 08/13/2018 4:03:43 AM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (Time to BLOAT again.)
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To: InABunkerUnderSF

Cis-Lunar?

Did you just assume its orbit?

You monster!


11 posted on 08/13/2018 5:50:00 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan (I posit that there IS something left worth fighting for.)
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To: BenLurkin

Cis-lunar? bi-prop?

Sounds queer to me. Someone having a gay old time writing this one?


12 posted on 08/13/2018 6:21:37 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: webheart

It’s an astrogation term, not necessarily astronomical.

I first read it in an otherwise layman’s-term-using book about the Apollo program, sometime in the mid-70s.

I was 8 at the time of Apollo 17.


13 posted on 08/13/2018 1:26:37 PM PDT by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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