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Mini Ion Thrusters To Push Tiny Satellites

Tiny microthrusters developed at MIT will be used to maneuver very small satellites.

Lozano’s design is a flat, compact square — much like a computer chip — covered with 500 microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions. Together, the array of spiky tips creates a small puff of charged particles that can help propel a shoebox-sized satellite forward.

“They’re so small that you can put several [thrusters] on a vehicle,” Paulo Lozano, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, says. He adds that a small satellite outfitted with several microthrusters could “not only move to change its orbit, but do other interesting things — like turn and roll.”

From MIT.

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