ThrustMe

ThrustMe

ThrustMe

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ThrustMe is a deep tech company that designs miniaturized aerospace thrusters for small satellites, increasing the life of satellites and making them more affordable.[1][2]

Quick Facts Trade name, Industry ...

The company builds gridded ion thrusters (NPT30)[3] and cold gas thrusters (I2T5).[4]

History

ThrustMe was founded in 2017 by Ane Aanesland and Dmytro Rafalskyi, who previously worked at the École Polytechnique and CNRS as researchers in plasma physics and electric 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 the European 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 using iodine as propellant, with a cold-gas thruster.[10]

In 2021, ThrustMe, in partnership with SpaceTy, achieved the first in-orbit demonstration of an electric propulsion system powered by iodine.[3][11][12] 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.[13][14]

According to the European Space Agency, in regard to the use of iodine rather than Xenon in a gridded 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]

Flight missions

Ongoing

  • XiaoXiang 1-08 is a six-unit cubesat 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-unit cubesat developed by Spacety. The satellite carries ThrustMe's NPT30-I2-1U, the first iodine electric propulsion system sent into space.[3] The cubesat was launched onboard the Long 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-kilogram SAR minisatellite. It is the first generation of light, small SAR satellites developed by Spacety carrying a NPT30-I2-1U for orbit maintenance, collision avoidance, and end-of-life deorbiting.[19] It was launched on board a Long March 8 rocket on 22 December 2020 for ocean research.[20][21]

Announced

  • NorSat-TD is a microsatellite developed by the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for the Norwegian space agency.[22] The satellite was [launched in 2023; earlier it was] scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.[23]
  • GOMX-5 is a 12U cubesat built by GomSpace for the European Space Agency to perform a technology demonstration mission.[24] The launch is scheduled for 2021.[25]
  • INSPIRESat-4/ARCADE is a 27U spacecraft built by NTU, Jülich Research Centre, LASP, IISST and NCU. 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]

Awards

  • French Tech Ticket, 2017.[28]
  • "Grand Prix i-LAB" of the 19th national competition to help the creation of innovative technology companies, 2017.[29]
  • "Prix de l'Excellence Française Innovation Spatiale", 2017.[30]
  • "Médaille de l’innovation du CNRS", for Ane Aanesland, 2019.[31][32]

References

  1. [1]
    Lestavel, Thomas (2019-04-17). "La start-up ThrustMe divise par trois les coûts d'accès à l'espace". Le Figaro.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  2. [2]
    "How Iodine Electric Propulsion Systems Can Enable The Economic Sustainability Of Satellite Constellations". satmagazine.com. February 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  3. [3]
    "French startup demonstrates iodine propulsion in potential boost for space debris mitigation efforts". Spacenews. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  4. [4]
    "Iodine Impulse for Smallsats Demo'd On-Orbit by ThrustMe and Spacety". Smallsat News. 2019-11-25. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  5. [5]
    "Un nouvel espace pour les start-up". La Jaune et la Rouge (in French). 2018-06-03. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  6. [6]
    Meddah, Hassan (2017-07-08). "ThrustMe emmène les minisatellites en orbite". L'Usine Nouvelle (in French). Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  7. [7]
    "French startup raises $1.9 million for smallsat electric propulsion". SpaceNews.com. 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  8. [8]
    "Electric propulsion startup ThrustMe gets $2.8 million from European Commission". SpaceNews.com. 2018-08-09. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  9. [9]
    "Ane Aanesland, de chercheuse au CNRS à CEO de ThrustMe | Bpifrance servir l'avenir". www.bpifrance.fr (in French). 10 July 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  10. [10]
    Couto, Alexandre (2019-11-04). "ThrustMe met en orbite le premier satellite utilisant de l'iode pour se propulser". Industry-techno (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  11. [11]
    "ThrustMe's Iodine Propulsion System Launched Aboard Spacety's Smallsat". Satnews. 2020-11-06. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  12. [12]
    "Iodine thruster could slow space junk accumulation". esa.int. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  13. [13]
    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. PMC 8599014. PMID 34789903. 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.
  14. [14]
    Ravisetti, Monisha (18 November 2021). "In a space first, scientists test ion thrusters powered by iodine". CNET. Red Ventures. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  15. [15]
    "Iodine thruster used to change the orbit of a small satellite for the first time ever". www.esa.int. The European Space Agency. 22 January 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  16. [16]
    Jones, Andrew (2019-11-25). "French startup ThrustMe found fast route to orbit through China's Spacety". Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  17. [17]
    "ThrustMe's Iodine Propulsion System Launched Aboard Spacety's Smallsat". Sat News. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  18. [18]
    Werner, Debra (6 November 2020). "Spacety launches satellite to test ThrustMe iodine electric propulsion and constellation technologies". Space News. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  19. [19]
    Jones, Andrew (2020-03-25). "China launches first Long March 8 from Wenchang spaceport". Spacenews. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  20. [20]
    "Imagery from Hisea-1 SAR Satellite Unveiled". 2020-12-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  21. [21]
    "Iodine Electric Propulsion To Become A Critical Subsystem For SAR Constellations". Sat News. 3 January 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  22. [22]
    "Norway Selects Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to Develop Technology Demonstrator Microsatellite | UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory". www.utias-sfl.net. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  23. [23]
    Romsenter, Norsk. "Agreement signed with the Netherlands for Norway's new satellite". Norwegian Space Agency. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  24. [24]
    "ESA and GomSpace sign contract for continuation of the GOMX-5 mission". News Powered by Cision. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  25. [25]
    "GOMX 5A, 5B". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  26. [26]
    "INSPIRESAT-4/ARCADE : a VLEO mission for atmospheric temperature measurements and ionospheric plasma characterization". Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  27. [27]
    "INSPIRESat-4". University of Colorado. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  28. [28]
    "Les 70 startups internationales lauréates du french tech ticket saison 2" (PDF). finances.gouv.fr (in French). 2017-03-07. p. 27. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  29. [29]
    "Quatre projets lauréats du Concours i-LAB 2017 (dont un Grand Prix) sont accompagnés par la SATT Paris-Saclay" (PDF) (in French). SATT Paris-Saclay. 2017-07-07. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  30. [30]
    "Palmarès Spécial Innovation Spatiale 2017 -". Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  31. [31]
    Poncet, Guerric (2019-11-28). "Ane Aanesland, la mécano de l'espace". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  32. [32]
    Koppe, Martin (2019-12-09). "Four Aces for Innovation". news.cnrs.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-07-26.
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