|
|
| Location: Home > Space Propulsion |
European research into radio-frequency Ion propulsion was initially conducted in the 1960's by the University of Giessen, Germany. EADS's predecessor, MBB, then joined the development team in 1970 and undertook the industrial leadership. Since 1970, the Astrium Lampoldshausen Centre have continued with the research, development and refinement of Radio-frequency Ion Thruster (RIT) technologies, associated propulsion systems, analytical tools and techniques, processes and materials technologies. After over 25 years of extensive research and development, the first Radio-frequency Ion Thruster Assembly (RITA) was successfully demonstrated in space aboard ESA's European Retrievable Carrier EURECA, launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992. At that time, the RIT-10 system aboard EURECA provided a nominal specific impulse of 3,058 seconds. More recently, RITA-10 was used to retrieve the Artemis satellite from a total loss to a full recovery, after thrusting for 6,430 hours. RITA-10 is space qualified and has demonstrated thousands of hours of flawless operation in space and tens of thousands of hours on ground. So much so, that RITA-10 has broken two world records for long duration operation.
Developments into RITA continues with the RITA-XT achieving a nominal specific impulse of 4,500 seconds, and the RITA-22 achieving a nominal specific impulse of 5,500 seconds. RITA-22 will be qualified in 2007 and has already been selected for missions commencing in 2008. Propulsion of the future has now become a reality, with RITA providing a specific impulse ten to twenty times better than today's best performing liquid propellant engines and 30% to 50% better than alternative ion propulsion systems.
Contact for Further Information
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
