ThrustMe is adeep tech company that designs miniaturized aerospace thrusters forsmall satellites, increasing the life of satellites and making them more affordable.[1][2]
ThrustMe was founded in 2017 by Ane Aanesland and Dmytro Rafalskyi, who previously worked at theÉcole Polytechnique andCNRS as researchers inplasma physics andelectric propulsion.[5] Initially, the startup was incubated in Agoranov.[6] Also in 2017, ThrustMe raised 1.7 million euros for its development.[7]
In 2018, ThrustMe received €2.4 million from theEuropean Commission to commercialise electric propulsion for nanosatellites.[8]
In 2019, Ane Aanesland received the CNRS innovation medal for her entrepreneurial activities.[9] The same year, SpaceTy and ThrustMe maneuvered for the first time a satellite usingiodine as propellant, with a cold-gas thruster.[10]
In 2021, ThrustMe, in partnership with SpaceTy, achieved the first in-orbit demonstration of anelectric propulsion system powered by iodine.[3][11][12] The results were published as a research article in the journalNature, where the maneuvers described resulted in a cumulative altitude change above 3 km.[13][14]
According to theEuropean Space Agency, in regard to the use ofiodine rather thanXenon in agridded ion thruster, "This small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up."[15]
XiaoXiang 1-08 is a six-unitcubesat developed by Chinese satellite company Spacety. It carries ThrustMe's I2T5 non-pressurized cold gas thruster, the first in existence.[16]
BeiHangKongshi-1 is a 12-unitcubesat developed by Spacety. The satellite carries ThrustMe'sNPT30-I2-1U, the first iodine electric propulsion system sent into space.[3] The cubesat was launched on board theLong March 6 on 6 November 2020.[17] According to Rafalskyi, advanced orbital maneuvers would be carried out to test the satellite's full capabilities.[18]
Hisea-1 is a 180-kilogramSAR minisatellite. It is the first generation of light, small SAR satellites developed by Spacety carrying aNPT30-I2-1U for orbit maintenance, collision avoidance, and end-of-life deorbiting.[19] It was launched on board aLong March 8 rocket on 22 December 2020 for ocean research.[20][21]
NorSat-TD is a microsatellite developed by theUTIAS Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for theNorwegian space agency.[22] The satellite was [launched in 2023; earlier it was] scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.[23]
INSPIRESat-4/ARCADE is a 27U spacecraft built byNTU,Jülich Research Centre,LASP,IISST andNCU. The satellite aims to flight in the VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit) region to make in-situ Ionospheric plasma measurements.[26] The thruster is expected to lower the orbit of the satellite to less than 300 km and enable the mission to survive at this altitude for a duration of 6 months or more. The launch is scheduled for 2022.[27]
^Rafalskyi, Dmytro; Martínez Martínez, Javier; Habl, Lui; Zorzoli Rossi, Elena; Proynov, Plamen; Boré, Antoine; Baret, Thomas; Poyet, Antoine; Lafleur, Trevor; Dudin, Stanislav; Aanesland, Ane (17 November 2021)."In-orbit demonstration of an iodine electric propulsion system".Nature.599 (7885):411–415.doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y.PMC8599014.PMID34789903.Both atomic and molecular iodine ions are accelerated by high-voltage grids to generate thrust, and a highly collimated beam can be produced with substantial iodine dissociation.
