Xenon, a heavy noble gas, is exceptionally rare on Earth, pricey and difficult to maintain.
That’s why French aerospace company ThrustMe is pursuing a plan for better ion propulsion tech.
They suggest using iodine instead of xenon.
Iodine is incredibly prevalent, inexpensive and easy to store with minimal effort.
Seaweed, printing ink, dairy and even table salt are rich in the non-reactive element.
Using iodine as fuel for spacecraft has been toyed with in the past.
Itpublished its results on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
ThrustMe integrated its system into the Beihangkoshi-1 research satellite, which is operated by the global space company Spacety.
The craft was launched into orbit by a Long March 6 rocket on Nov. 6, 2020.
This notion is the classic Newtonian sentiment “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”
This propels it upward.
That creates a net zero charge for the atom.
When an atom is ionized, the electron amount changes – what ion propulsion systems are after.
The key with plasma is it responds to electric or magnetic fields.
Ion thrusters have magnetic grids inside to induce fields and ultimately expel the positive ions.
Ions propelled at exceedingly fast speeds out of the back of the spacecraft push the spacecraft forward.
The thrusters use significantly less “fuel” than chemical rockets.
Over days, months or years, the velocity compounds upon itself.
It also already lives in a gaseous state, which helps move the plasma-induction process along.
But, as per ThrustMe, iodine atoms are a fair competitor.
Is iodine better?
Iodine has a few of its own limitations.
The researchers say SpaceX chose krypton as a propellant for Starlink satellites.
