{"id":3769,"date":"2012-04-03T06:39:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T06:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/scientists-develop-ionic-motor-microthrust-make-satellite-launches-greener\/"},"modified":"2012-04-03T06:39:32","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T06:39:32","slug":"scientists-develop-ionic-motor-microthrust-make-satellite-launches-greener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/scientists-develop-ionic-motor-microthrust-make-satellite-launches-greener\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists develop ionic motor, MicroThrust to make satellite launches greener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists are exploring space and unraveling its mysteries every year with the help of satellites. Still, we have barely scratched the surface. It takes millions of dollars to send a conventional satellite into space, making such endeavors too expensive to undertake on a regular basis. Wouldn\u2019t it be great, then, if we could explore the unknown using only a fraction of a liter of fuel? EPFL scientists along with their European partners are making this dream come true with the help of their ionic motor and the MicroThrust.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ecofriend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/getting_to_the_moon_on_drops_of_fuel_sbr4k.jpg\" alt=\"Getting to the Moon on Drops of Fuel\" title=\"Getting to the Moon on Drops of Fuel\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p>The thruster weighs just a few hundred grams though it is specially designed to power small satellites weighing between 1 to100kg. It enables satellites to change orbits around the earth and even explore distant destinations, which was earlier possible only with expensive and large spacecrafts. The motor, meanwhile, is designed in such a way that it can be mounted on small satellites of 10x10x10 cm3 dimensions. It weighs approximately 200 grams, which includes the weight of the control electronics and the fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of conventional fossil fuel, the mini motor is powered by an ionic liquid whose chemical compound is called EMI-BF4. It is also used as an electrolyte and as a solvent. EMI-BF4 is made up of electrically charged modules called ions and is liquid at room temperature. The ions are extracted and ejected using an electric field to derive thrust.<\/p>\n<p>After about six months of acceleration, the micro satellite\u2019s speed goes up from 24,000 km\/h to 42,000 km\/h, although the acceleration is about a tenth of a millimeter per square second or 0 to100 km\/h in 77 hours. However, in space where there is no friction, steady acceleration is possible.<\/p>\n<p>The ionic motor will be used to power CleanSpace One, a nano satellite whose sole purpose is to clean up space by trapping space debris and pulling it to the earth\u2019s atmosphere to be incinerated.<\/p>\n<p>Via: <a href=\"https:\/\/actu.epfl.ch\/news\/getting-to-the-moon-on-drops-of-fuel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EPFL<\/a> <\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists are exploring space and unraveling its mysteries every year with the help of satellites. Still, we have barely scratched the surface. It takes millions of dollars to send a conventional satellite into space, making such endeavors too expensive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/ecoguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}