Let there be plasma!? Or rather, let there be iodine plasma! Phase Four’s Advanced Development team recently demonstrated a successful firing of our RF Thruster using sublimated iodine as propellant. This test is part of an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and AFWERX funded campaign to adapt Phase Four’s fuel-agnostic RF Thruster to operate on inexpensive, densely-stored iodine. Our team is confident that we can now accurately sublimate, flow, and fire our thruster with iodine. This represents a critical first step towards delivering this “dual use” propulsion technology to both defense and commercial customers. In the very near future we foresee Maxwell engines coming off the production line pre-fueled and without any high pressure components thanks to implementing iodine as a propellant. #iodine #satellite #plasma #propulsion
Congratulations! It is an outstanding achievement!
Congratulations testing the system with other propellants! I know that's a big deal for ya'll. Nice work!
Congratulations Phase Four Team!
Space Product Developer, Mostly Propulsion
3 年can you put a piece of aluminum sheet in the vacuum chamber with the iodine thruster and take albedo measurements before and after ~10 hr iodine exposure at typical thrust? Cover half of it in kapton to simulate a solar cell. Iodine propellant missions need to consider the impact of plume impingement from the trace low-velocity ions in the plume that impinge on spacecraft surfaces. It's not a problem for neutral gasses, but iodine is an oxidizer and as a plasma it may be especially reactive with spacecraft surfaces. Best case-- you fill the vacuum chamber with materials common on spacecraft surfaces (MLI, anodized aluminum, camera optics, solar cell coatings etc) and measure albedo/emissivity/absorptivity/reflectivity and surface spectrometry on all before and after. Best result is no measurable change in radiative properties. Likely result would report that some materials have a film of iodides on the surface that effect A/E ratio and others do not. Spacecraft designers want to know which materials are sensitive to iodine as propellant.