In fact, he told Breaking Defense, Phase Four is the only startup whose board he has joined, not only because of its potential to “disrupt the in-space propulsion market” but also because its technology “is important for the country.”īridenstine said the combo of capabilities is a game-changer. “From my perspective, the goal is to have a single propulsion system that can do both high thrust and high ISP,” said former NASA head Jim Bridenstine, who is on Phase Four’s board. The downside is they get pretty low gas mileage, and their tanks add a lot of mass/volume. Thus, they are usually used by satellite operators for the small orbital shifts required for day-to-day station keeping.īy contrast, on-board chemical thrusters, which rely on stored propellants, can provide a lot of thrust. In engineering jargon they have a high specific impulse (Isp) but cannot generate enough thrust to allow a satellite to rapidly maneuver. The RF mechanism in the engine he added, works in a similar manner to that used in a charging mat for a cell phone.īut more importantly, company officials said, Phase Four’s technology is enabling the development of what are called multimode thrusters - which in essence combine a chemical thruster with an electric thruster using the same fuel source.Įlectric spacecraft propulsion systems are more fuel efficient. So we actually don’t have anything that physically touches the propellant, which allows us to be propellant agnostic,” Jarvis said. “We actually embed an RF element inside the thruster. Unlike cathodes that can corrode when exposed to certain fuels, he said, Phase Four’s RF thruster doesn’t actual come in contact with the propellant at all.
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