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Later this month, A small satellite will board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the world's first demonstration of a "green" satellite thruster in space. The satellite is powered by the AFM-315, which the Air Force first developed more than 20 years ago, as an alternative to the typical satellite juice, hydrazine. If successful, the AFM-315 could make satellites much more efficient, reduce satellite deployment time from weeks to days, and dramatically reduce the security requirements for satellite storage and fuel management. , for the benefit of man and the environment. Scientists working on fuel believe that it will play an important role in setting up extraterrestrial satellite operations.
Hydrazine is a volatile fuel that will ruin your day – and perhaps your life – if you are exposed to it. To power a satellite, you need a lot of security infrastructure, including full-body pressurized "SCAPE suits" just to manage the hardware. AFM-315, on the other hand, is less toxic than caffeine. So you only need a lab coat and a pump. "We were literally sitting in a room next to a plastic pitcher when we were feeding the satellite," says Chris McLean, a Ball Aerospace engineer and project leader in NASA's Green Propellant Infusion mission.
Unlike hydrazine, which has a consistency similar to that of water, AFM-315 is viscous. But its fuel density would increase by 50% the "miles per gallon" provided to a satellite, compared to the same volume of hydrazine.
Ball Aerospace
McLean says that one of the main selling points of the AFM-315 after safety is the fact that it does not freeze. The AFM-315 is a liquid salt, which means that at extremely low temperatures it undergoes a glassy transition. This turns the fuel into a fragile, glass-like solid, but does not cause the fuel to expand like frozen water or hydrazine. This attribute prevents fuel lines and storage containers from cracking under the effect of stress. In addition, its vitreous transition point being extremely low, the fuel would not need to be heated by the satellite, which represents a large power consumption for other missions. McLean said it would give more power to other satellite instruments or systems, which could open new possibilities for missions to other planets.
Despite all its advantages, the AFM-315's journey from concept to launch was a long one. McLean explains that the Air Force Research Laboratory was first developed in 1998 as an alternative satellite fuel. Its use is limited because of its high combustion temperature, about twice that of hydrazine. This required exotic – and expensive – materials to avoid damaging the satellite. By the late 2000s, the cost of manufacturing propulsion systems capable of withstanding the heat of the AFM-315 was low enough to be able to be used, but no company wanted to risk feeding its satellites with an experimental thruster. McLean adds that if the AFM-315 were to be adopted on a large scale by the satellite industry, it would have to prove itself in orbit. Thus, NASA's Green Infusion Propellant mission was born.
Originally scheduled for launch in late 2015, the green propellant mission was caught up in delays in the development of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. On June 24, it is planned to perform the second operational mission of the Falcon Heavy, as well as several other payloads, including an atomic clock tested for navigation in deep space.
The green propellant satellite bus was developed by Ball Aerospace and is equipped with four newton 1 propellant and 22 newton propellant that will be used to test the AFM-315 propellant. During his 13-month mission, he will use the thrusters to perform orbital maneuvers, such as lowering the orbit and modifying his attitude or inclination, to test the propeller's performance. .
McLean indicates that customers already want to use the green thruster if the demonstration flight is going well. This means that satellites could perform operational missions around the Earth as early as 18 months after the demonstration. McLean says the AFM-315 could be particularly useful for exploring the cold regions of the solar system, such as the Martian poles. It looks like the red planet just got a little greener.
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