The GomX-4 pair. Image credit: GomSpace
An engine not unlike a butane cigarette lighter will power the GomX-4B radio communications satellite, which will launch in February. Organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Danish Ministry of Defense, GomX-4A includes two pairs of butane thrusters supplied by NanoSpace. The thrusters are designed to be very small and simple.
GomX-4B’s cold-gas thruster system. Image credit: NanoSpace
“Storing it as a liquid, like in a cigarette lighter, allows us to pack as many butane molecules as possible inside the small available volume – its liquid form being some 1000 times denser than its gas,” said NanoSpace CEO Tor-Arne Grönland.
More information will be found here. This mission is a test to show that the miniature satellite can successfully change orbit and communicate with a second unit via a radio link at varying distances.
Thruster chip for the GomX-4B CubeSat’s propulsion system. Image credit: Nanospace
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense
