A110 Lunar RCS Thruster Qualified by Agile Space Industries
Qualification testing of the A110 lunar RCS thruster has been completed by Agile Space Industries well ahead of the planned 2025 launch of the ispace Mission 3 lunar lander spacecraft which will land on the far side of the lunar Moon.
“The existing options for high performance storable rocket engines were not suitable for the unique demands of landing on the Lunar surface, and we needed to develop a new product to enable their mission.”
Lars Osborne, Agile Chief Engineer for the A110 Thruster.
The A110 lunar RCS thruster is designed to precisely guide Lunar Landers as they touch down on the lunar surface. The bipropellant thruster is being used for the reaction control system on the ispace Mission 3 lunar lander spacecraft.
The recent surge in international lunar space activity, galvanized by the Artemis Accords, is enabling the development of a new supply chain of US made lunar landing rocket engines. The US hasn’t supplied any lunar landing engines since the Apollo Program over 50 years ago. Meeting the challenges of lunar landings represented a departure from the current state of the art for storable rocket engines. “The existing options for high performance storable rocket engines were not suitable for the unique demands of landing on the Lunar surface, and we needed to develop a new product to enable their mission,” said Lars Osborne, Agile Chief Engineer for the A110 Thruster. “These are challenges the US space industry has not faced in several generations, and it is thrilling to contribute to a sustainable return to the moon. Qualifying this attitude control thruster is one small step in a larger effort, but one we are proud of.”
A110 Lunar RCS Thruster Meets Intent of its Specifications
Qualification testing is the process of verifying that a design meets the intent of the specification. For the A110, that was the process of building a flight-quality thruster and subjecting it to vibration, shock, and hot fire testing, exceeding the expected conditions during the mission. “Testing the thruster in a high-fidelity environment across all potential mission conditions is something we could have only done using our advanced hypergolic test stands, and our customers have confidence knowing it will work when they need it. It’s to test every potential scenario, because on final descent to the lunar surface, scrubbing is not an option,” said Daudi Barnes, CTO and Founder of Agile.
The A110 Thruster is also pioneering the commercial use of high-performance M20 fuel. The hydrazine/monomethylhydrazine blend increases vehicle performance for high ΔV missions, such as landing on the Moon. Alongside the production work to build, acceptance test, and deliver dozens of A110 thrusters for contracted flight programs, Agile is developing multiple new thrusters, combustion devices, and propulsion subsystems to support other Lunar Lander, Spacecraft, and Launch Vehicle programs. Since its founding in 2019, Agile has developed and hot fire tested nine rocket engines and combustion devices from clean-slate designs, firing them in-house in either of its two hypergolic propellant vacuum test stands. Today, Agile Space Industries offers thrusters, testing services, metal 3D printing, and complete propulsion systems to its customers.
(Source: Agile Space Industries news release. Images provided)