{"id":14002,"date":"2017-12-25T06:20:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T06:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=14002"},"modified":"2020-05-27T06:19:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T06:19:14","slug":"esas-next-satellite-propelled-butane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/esas-next-satellite-propelled-butane\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA’s next satellite propelled by Butane"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
GomX-4 pair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ESA\u2019s next miniature satellite will be its first able to change orbit. Thanks to a compact thruster resembling a butane cigarette lighter, the cereal box-sized satellite will fly around its near-twin to test their radio communications.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ready to be launched with its counterpart from China on\u00a02 February<\/a>, GomX-4B is built from six standard 10 cm CubeSat units.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much quicker to build and cheaper to launch than traditional satellites, ESA is making use of CubeSats for\u00a0testing new technologies<\/a>\u00a0in space.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main goal is to test the radio link at varying distances, routing data from one satellite to the other, then down to the ground. GomX-4A, from the Danish Ministry of Defence, will remain in position while ESA\u2019s GomX-4B manoeuvres up to 4500 km away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supplied by Swedish firm NanoSpace, the thrusters fitted along one side will allow it to adjust its motion by a total of 15 m\/s \u2013 a speed equivalent to a kicked football.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two pressurised fuel tanks linked to two pairs of thrusters,\u201d explains Tor-Arne Gr\u00f6nland, head of NanoSpace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Butane thrusters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRather than burning propellant, these are simpler \u2018cold-gas\u2019 thrusters designed specifically for such a small mission. And simpler means cheaper and smaller.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fuel is stored under pressure, then released through a tiny rocket nozzle. Even though it\u2019s cold gas, we achieve a substantial velocity change by using liquid butane that turns to gas as it exits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStoring it as a liquid, like in a cigarette lighter, allows us to pack as many butane molecules as possible inside the small available volume \u2013 its liquid form being some 1000 times denser than its gas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each thruster will provide only 1 millinewton \u2013 the weight you would feel holding a feather in your hand \u2013 but enough to move the 8 kg satellite over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thrusters will typically be fired in pairs although they can also work individually, for a few minutes at a time and up to an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to a typical half-tonne satellite with 1 N hydrazine thrusters, we are almost a hundred times lighter and a thousand times weaker,\u201d adds Tor-Arne.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the elements such as the chamber, nozzle and sensors are fitted into a 1×2 cm chip, just 1 mm thick.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

NanoSpace already has flight experience behind its cold-gas thruster, with a smaller version carried on China\u2019s TW-1 in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company plans to demonstrate a great many different operating methods during the GomX-4B mission: \u201cWe\u2019ll do different kinds of burns: long, short, pulsing and throttling up and down. It\u2019s important to do these things early in the mission then again late on, to show it can survive and perform well in space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

NanoSpace began as a commercial spin-off from Sweden\u2019s University of Uppsala, and was acquired last year by Danish company GomSpace, builder of the GomX-4 satellites. The companies are currently working together on a constellation of more than 200 CubeSats for a commercial customer.<\/span><\/p>\n

NanoSpace is also developing an ESA thruster for flying several satellites in formation, rendezvous and docking, and for controlling the orientation of\u00a0CubeSats in deep space<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESA\u2019s next miniature satellite will be its first able to change orbit. Thanks to a compact thruster resembling a butane cigarette lighter, the cereal box-sized satellite will fly around its near-twin to test their radio communications. Ready to be launched with its counterpart from China on\u00a02 February, GomX-4B is built from six standard 10 cm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",305,203,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/GomX-4_pair_medium.png",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}