GEMA ARBOLEYA
Ienai Space
Gema Arboleya is a Business Engineer at Ienai Space. She joined the company in early 2021 and became part of the fabrication and testing team. Mainly involved in the testing activities that are carried out to characterize the performance of ATHENA thruster. In September, she also became the Project engineer of the AMPERE Orbital Project as part of the Galactica Project framework from the European Commission, in which she has been developing scalable technologies for the propellant management system of ATHENA. She then transitioned to Business Engineering under the framework of the Woman in Tech project from the European commission.
Presentation Synopsis:
“Ienai Space and PocketQubes“
The newspace sector is experiencing exponential growth. This increasing trend is motivated by the decrease in the cost of both manufacturing and launching services, together with the improvements in technologies that have allowed the miniaturization of different components. Within this sector the picosatellites are particularly interesting. To date, around 340 picosatellites have been launched into Space. More specifically, the pocketqube class from which around 70 have been launched only this last year, 2022 [1]., This kind of satellites represent an attractive business opportunity for IoT companies [2-3], as well as for amateur and academic-oriented purposes.
However, these small satellites are lacking one of the most critical enabling technologies: adequate on-board propulsion solutions. Propulsion is a key technology for any small satellite operating in LEO. Not only for positioning the satellite in the correct orbit after it is released from the launcher vehicle, but also to increase the lifetime of the satellite by means of compensating for drag and other perturbations. Furthermore, it becomes critical when deploying a full constellation, which is the primary focus of IoT companies.
The main reason why picosatellites do not incorporate on-board propulsion is related to the extremely limited volume, mass, and power available in these platforms, which represents a huge challenge for propulsion providers. Nevertheless, IENAI SPACE has been developing ATHENA, an electric propulsion system based on electrospray technology, which could potentially fit due to its “microscale” nature. Electrospray technology is based on the extraction and acceleration of charged particles contained in an ionic liquid.
During this presentation, the main challenges regarding the development of on-board propulsion solutions for picosatellites and the latest developments related to ATHENA propulsion system will be addressed.
