ASET Air-Scooping Electric Thruster

The Air-Scooping Electric Thruster (ASET) is Viridian Space’s air-breathing electric propulsion concept for satellites operating in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Instead of relying on a finite onboard propellant tank, an ASET-equipped spacecraft scoops the rarefied atmospheric gas present at VLEO altitudes and processes it into propellant for an electric thruster, giving the satellite an effectively continuous propellant supply for as long as it remains at low altitude. This removes the propellant-mass limit that normally caps a satellite’s maneuvering life and lets platforms stay at ultra-low altitudes indefinitely.

Operating at VLEO gives satellites higher-resolution Earth observation imagery and stronger broadband communications signal strength than equivalent payloads at higher LEO altitudes, because they are physically closer to the ground/user terminals. The continuous-thrust, refuelable nature of ASET is also intended to support in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) missions and active debris-removal operations that require sustained low-altitude station-keeping and maneuvering. Viridian has published air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) performance analysis at the 2022 International Electric Propulsion Conference and tests thruster hardware in vacuum-chamber facilities at its El Segundo, California lab.