HYDROS-C Water Electrolysis Thruster
Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (AMERGINT)
CubeSat-scale green water-electrolysis thruster: splits stored water into hydrogen/oxygen for bipropellant combustion, with flight units delivered including NASA's PTD mission.
Technical specifications
- Specific Impulse
- > 310 s
- Thrust
- > 1.2 N
- Power
- 5-25 W
- Total Impulse
- > 2,151 Ns
- Water tank
- Customizable
- Flight status
- Flight units delivered; flying on NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD)
About
HYDROS is TUI’s hybrid electrical/chemical propulsion technology providing green, safe, high-thrust, high-fuel-economy propulsion using water as propellant, so it is safe for personnel during satellite integration and poses no significant risk to primary payloads during launch. Once on-orbit, HYDROS uses a zero-G electrolysis system to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for bipropellant combustion through a rocket nozzle, providing higher thrust efficiency at lower input power than electric propulsion, and higher specific impulse than monopropellant chemical propulsion. HYDROS-C is the CubeSat-sized configuration, with a customizable water tank sized to mission requirements and integrated avionics that simplify commanding and host-spacecraft integration. NASA is using TUI’s HYDROS-C unit on the first Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD) mission.
Documentation
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