ThrustMe is a

deep tech Deep technology (deep tech) or hard tech is a classification of organization, or more typically startup company, with the expressed objective of providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges. They present ...

company that designs miniaturized aerospace thrusters for

small satellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

s, increasing the life of satellites and making them more affordable. The company builds

gridded ion thruster The gridded ion thruster is a common design for ion thrusters, a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion method running on electrical power by using high-voltage grid electrodes to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces. History The ...

s (NPT30) and

cold gas thruster A cold gas thruster (or a cold gas propulsion system) is a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a cold gas thruster does not house any ...

s (I2T5).

History

ThrustMe was founded in 2017 by Ane Aanesland and Dmytro Rafalskyi, who previously worked at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

and CNRS as researchers in

plasma physics Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...

and

electric propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a sp ...

. Initially, the startup was incubated in Agoranov. Also in 2017, ThrustMe raised 1.7 million euros for its development. In 2018, ThrustMe received €2.4 million from the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

to commercialise electric propulsion for nanosatellites. In 2019, Ane Aanesland received the CNRS innovation medal for her entrepreneurial activities. The same year, SpaceTy and ThrustMe maneuvered for the first time a satellite using iodine as propellant, with a cold-gas thruster. In 2021, ThrustMe, in partnership with SpaceTy, achieved the first in-orbit demonstration of an electric propulsion system powered by iodine. The results were published as a research article in the journal ''Nature'', where the maneuvers described resulted in a cumulative altitude change above 3 km. According to the European Space Agency, in regard to the use of iodine rather than

Xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

in a

, "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."

Flight missions

Ongoing

*XiaoXiang 1-08 is a six-unit

cubesat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...

developed by Chinese satellite company Spacety. It carries ThrustMe's I2T5 non-pressurized cold gas thruster, the first in existence. *BeiHangKongshi-1 is a 12-unit

developed by Spacety. The satellite carries ThrustMe's

NPT30-I2 An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity. An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of ...

-1U, the first iodine electric propulsion system sent into space. The cubesat was launched onboard the

Long March 6 The Long March 6 () or Chang Zheng 6 as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6 for export or CZ 6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fuelled launch vehicle of the Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corpor ...

on 6 November 2020. According to Rafalskyi, advanced orbital maneuvers would be carried out to test the satellite's full capabilities. *Hisea-1 is a 180-kilogram

SAR SAR or Sar may refer to: Places * Sar (river), Galicia, Spain * Sar, Bahrain, a residential district * Sar, Iran (disambiguation), several places in Iran * Sar, Tibet, Tibet Autonomous Region of China * Šar Mountains, in southeastern Europe ...

minisatellite. It is the first generation of light, small SAR satellites developed by Spacety carrying a

NPT30 An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity. An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of ...

-I2-1U for orbit maintenance, collision avoidance, and end-of-life deorbiting. It was launched onboard a Long March 8 rocket on 22 December 2020 for ocean research.

Announced

* NorSat-TD is a microsatellite developed by the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for the

Norwegian space agency The Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA) (formerly the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC); Norwegian'':'' ''Norsk Romsenter'') is a Norwegian government agency that follows up Norway's public space activities. NOSA's goal is to ensure that Norway benefits f ...

. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2022. *GOMX-5 is a 12U

built by

GomSpace GomSpace is a manufacturer and operator https://gomspace.com/constellation-management-(2).aspx of nanosatellites for customers in the defence, academic, government and commercial markets. GomSpace's services include systems integration, nanosatell ...

for the European Space Agency to perform a technology demonstration mission. The launch is scheduled for 2021. *INSPIRESat-4/ARCADE is a 27U spacecraft built by NTU,

Jülich Research Centre Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', nl, Gulik, french: Juliers, Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As a border region betwe ...

, LASP, IISST and NCU. The satellite aims to flight in the VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit) region to make in-situ Ionospheric plasma measurements. 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.

Awards

* French Tech Ticket, 2017. * "Grand Prix i-LAB" of the 19th national competition to help the creation of innovative technology companies, 2017. * "Prix de l'Excellence Française Innovation Spatiale", 2017. * "Médaille de l’innovation du CNRS", for Ane Aanesland, 2019.

References

{{Portal, Spaceflight Spacecraft propulsion Aerospace companies Aerospace companies of France