Podcast: From Blastoff to Beyond: Ion Thrusters Pushing the Limits of Space Travel

14 Feb, 2023

The glow of the plasma from the H9 MUSCLE Hall thruster during a test with krypton propellant. PHOTO: Plasmadynamic and Electric Propulsion Laboratory.

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.

satellites

- space

- spacecraft

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.

EPISODE NOTES

(2:20) - Ultra-efficient Plasma Thrusters For Deep Space Travel

As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

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Spinning Payloads Into Low Earth Orbit

SpinLaunch is a California based startup that wants to revolutionize the space industry with a novel, sustainable, and cost-efficient method of delivering payloads to low earth orbit.

23 Nov, 2021

This article was discussed in our Next Byte podcast.

The full article will continue below.

Current Launch Methodology

Rocket Propulsion History

The origins of rocket propulsion for space applications takes us back to the space race between the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR). It is 1955, the cold war is in full swing, and two superpowers are trying to display their dominance over the other on the worldwide stage by achieving milestones in the final frontier: space.

Sputnik - the world’s first satellite - became the world’s first object that was launched into space via a rocket in 1957. USSR scientists leveraged the R-7 rocket platform which was originally developed as a delivery method for warheads to accomplish this feat.

Image 1. The Sputnik satellite

Then the Soviet’s raised the stakes with the Vostok 1 mission by making Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin the first human to be in orbit in April of 1961. In contrast to the sputnik mission, Vostok 1 was powered by a Vostok-K rocket platform designed specifically for spaceflight.

Naturally, the United States needed a monumental response to demonstrate superiority and in May of 1961, John F. Kennedy did just that by setting a goal to put a man on the moon before the decade was over which might’ve been one of the most ambitious goals ever set given that the first U.S. astronaut to reach orbit had been accomplished just three weeks before the speech. Regardless, this was the genesis of the Apollo mission(s).

And that brings us to the infamous Saturn V rocket which launched the Apollo 11 crew to the moon on July 16th of 1969. The Saturn V was designed under the direction of ex-Nazi scientist Warner von Braun and it was capable of delivering payloads up to 90,000 pounds to

Image: OPS-SAT research platform. Credit: ESA

Smartphone technology provides satellites with increased computing power

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is developing a new computer architecture that will provide On-Board Computers (OBCs) with more power as well as enabling them to repair themselves.

Katja Lenz

fromDLR

14 Jun, 2022

computing

- satellites

- space

Reliable and powerful computers play a central role in spaceflight – for example, computer systems in satellites enable sophisticated Earth observation missions. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is developing a new computer architecture that will provide On-Board Computers (OBCs) with more power as well as enabling them to repair themselves. Distributed heterogeneous OBCs are being created in the Scalable On-Board Computing for Space Avionics (ScOSA) flight experiment project. They feature different computing nodes that are connected to form a network.

A general challenge for computer systems in satellites is that cosmic radiation can interfere with their operation. "If a radiation particle impacts a digital memory element, it might turn a zero into a one," explains Project Manager Daniel Lüdtke from the DLR Institute for Software Technology in Braunschweig. Ultimately, the system can even fail or deliver incorrect results. For this reason, radiation-hardened processors are available for use in space. However, these are very expensive and have only limited computing power. On the other hand, processors such as those used for smartphones are very powerful and also much cheaper. They are, however, much more vulnerable to space radiation. ScOSA integrates both types of processors in one system.

ScOSA computer. Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Testing on the OPS-SAT satellite in low-Earth orbit

Special software detects errors and failures, and manages the computers. "In this process, programs running on a faulty processor are automatically transferred to other processors via the network," explains Lüdtke. Meanwhile, the satellite continues to function normally. The software then restarts the processor and re-integrates it into the system.

An experiment on the European Space Agency (ESA) OPS-SAT satellite has now shown

Podcast: From Blastoff to Beyond: Ion Thrusters Pushing the Limits of Space Travel

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.

EPISODE NOTES

Current Launch Methodology

Rocket Propulsion History

Testing on the OPS-SAT satellite in low-Earth orbit

PLATO clears decisive hurdle

Successful high-speed flight experiments with new sounding rocket configuration

NASA, Partners Test 3D Printed Rocket Pad Designed by Artemis Generation Students

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.

EPISODE NOTES

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