Sustainable Propulsion and Satellite Refueling Partnership Announced
A partnership for sustainable propulsion and satellite refueling has been inked between Orbit Fab and Neutron Star Systems.
The companies established a cooperative agreement for co-development of sustainable propulsion and satellite refueling solutions with green propellants. The agreement lays the foundation to increase the range of refuelable propellants by combining NSS propellant-agnostic electric propulsion technology with Orbit Fab’s refueling interfaces and tankers.
NSS and Orbit Fab’s cooperation has been fostered by the United States Space Force and Air Force Research Laboratory’s Catalyst Accelerator – both companies were members of the accelerator’s On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacture (OSAM) cohort which took place in Spring 2021. The cooperation is founded on Orbit Fab’s leadership in satellite refueling solutions and the wide propellant flexibility of NSS's SUPREMETM electric thruster. With growing concerns over the safety and cost of traditional Hydrazine propellant, the adoption of new green propellants such as LMP 103S will be critical for enabling safer and more sustainable space operations.
Orbit Fab is pioneering the introduction of on-orbit refueling, having launched its first tanker to orbit, Tanker-001 Tenzing, last summer. Earlier this month, Orbit Fab announced a $12 million AFWERX STRATFI program to integrate RAFTI onto DoD assets to provide them with refueling services.
NSS SUPREME is an Applied-Field Magnetoplasmadynamic (AF-MPD) thruster that leverages industrially mature High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS) to create the magnetic fields to create a dense, high temperature plasma and generate thrust through crossed electrostatic and magnetic fields. The result is a low thrust and high fuel efficiency thruster that can operate on several different types of propellant, including Argon and Ammonia, which are over 100x cheaper than the industry standard, Xenon.
Orbit Fab expects to deploy dozens of fuel tankers and shuttles in the next 5 to 10 years, positioning them in proximity to customer satellite constellations in low Earth orbit (LEO), GEO and cislunar space. Astroscale and Orbit Fab are exploring additional opportunities to expand the on-orbit servicing market, including transferring fuel from tankers directly to operational satellites. Orbit Fab’s first two fuel shuttles will be commissioned in LEO in 2023.
(Source: Orbit Fab news release. Image from file)