Video from ISSC 2014.First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing. Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/Here is an older video on it.Quote from: TrevorMonty on 07/16/2014 11:15 amVideo from ISSC 2014.First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 11/25/2015 04:43 pmThe CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing. Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/Here is an older video on it.Quote from: TrevorMonty on 07/16/2014 11:15 amVideo from ISSC 2014.First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA."Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days. The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdf
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 11/25/2015 10:10 pmQuote from: TrevorMonty on 11/25/2015 04:43 pmThe CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing. Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/Here is an older video on it.Quote from: TrevorMonty on 07/16/2014 11:15 amVideo from ISSC 2014.First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA."Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days. The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdfDid you mean using Xenon for high Isp an water for high thrust?UPDATE: I checked the source document, which really states that than Xe ISP is just 500s, three times lower than for water. This is strange.
Has anyone ever flown a CubeSAT with propulsion?edit: I mean a propulsion system that actually worked.
It seems to me that there is an excess of supply in the market, compared with the number of missions intended to fly applications. It appears that applications developers still want to create their own platforms. Since we all live in a world where widespread adoption of standardized smartphone platforms like the IPhone and Android have encouraged developers to create applications, in our field the people who should be focused on applications spend their time making solar panels.
Quote from: Danderman on 10/01/2014 01:48 pmHas anyone ever flown a CubeSAT with propulsion?edit: I mean a propulsion system that actually worked.Bump for 2016