Hall Effect Thruster for small satellites EPIC 25/10/2017 Do not disclose without the explicit consent of Exotrail 1

Transcription

1 Hall Effect Thruster for small satellites EPIC 25/10/2017 1

2 Company overview Cofounders : Office : X-Tech Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau Cedex France Nicolas Heitz CEO David Henri COO Paul Lascombes CSO Jean-Luc Maria CTO Partners and sponsors : 2

3 Company activities ExoMG ExoMS Thruster for kg satellites Mission services for the space industry 3

4 Project overview Project funded and started in July 2016 for the thruster development Main objective : To develop for beginning of 2018 a fully integrated miniaturized Hall effect thruster prototype (TRL6) Plasma chamber Cathode Fluidic system (Xenon tank, pressure regulator, mass flow controller) Electronics (low and high voltage functions, communication, control-command and housekeeping) Project based on research heritage, patents and know-how mainly from CNRS and UVSQ. In parallel, development of in-house software for performances analysis and space mission design, focused on propulsion benefits 4

5 Why HET? Technical characteristics & Benefits for our customers Commercial characteristics & Benefits for our customers Hall Effect Technology ( HET ) Reliable, well-known European product ITAR-Free, easier, cheaper High Performances and versatility Smaller indirect costs Modular, easily scalable Smaller indirect costs Non pollutant fuel Safe for the spacecraft Operation services No need for an in-house dev. Theoretical performances of the ExoMG 0.5 thruster Obtained with an academic HET simulation code Expected nominal working point 0.5 mn / 20 W / 300 V 5

6 Development status (thruster) ExoMG 0.5 prototype performances computation and overall design ended. Manufacturing completed at 90%. AIT of the complete thruster scheduled from November Some tests (thermal vacuum, vibrations, life test 10k cycles) already done at sub-system level (cathode, mass flow controller ) Complete thruster characterization planned for April 2018 In parallel, launch of several R&D activities : cathode miniaturisation and emitter material improvements, alternative fluidic systems, 6

7 Development status (mission services) Phase A analysis offer ready We analyse the performances of constellations in terms of revisit rate, coverage, resolution, specific areas of interests, We define & optimise constellations based on performances requirements We minimise the cost (no. of satellites / no. of launches) of the mission We design & optimise propulsion missions and detailed manoeuvres We evaluate the evolution of performances in case of mission parameter changes (no. of satellite, GSN, altitude, propulsion, ) We provide a full and comprehensive report & presentation with a global analysis on performances, optimisation & improvement tracks Full report & Presentation Includes performances analysis, performances maps, detailed results, Optimisation maps Performances comparison, impact of propulsion, impact of number of satellites Full manoeuvre design Optimisation of manoeuvres and main parameters (distance, RAAN, ) 7

8 Roadmap < Proof of concept (2014) ExoMG 0.5 plasma chamber optimisation and design Integrated prototype design, manufacturing and AIT Prototype testing Product industrialisation R&D activities Demonstration mission Scale-up 8

9 9