{"id":799823,"date":"2025-12-19T06:22:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799823"},"modified":"2025-12-19T06:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:22:30","slug":"introducing-the-250-n-ariel-thruster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799823","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the 250 N ARIEL thruster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"modal__tab-content--details\">\n<div class=\"modal__tab-description\">\n<p>Spanish company Arkadia is developing a thruster called\u00a0ARIEL\u00a0(Attitude for Reusable and Innovative European Launchers).\u00a0Many satellites and rockets have two types of engines, one for moving large distances and one for controlling their orientation, or attitude.\u00a0This\u00a0thruster\u00a0has been\u00a0developed to be part of\u00a0a reliable and affordable\u00a0Reaction Control System\u00a0that\u00a0adjusts orientation of\u00a0space transportation vehicles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ARIEL uses hydrogen peroxide as fuel\u00a0which is\u00a0more sustainable\u00a0and\u00a0less toxic\u00a0than\u00a0the hydrazine\u00a0commonly used\u00a0in most reaction control systems. It is\u00a0one of\u00a0the first\u00a0hydrogen peroxide\u00a0monopropellant\u00a0thrusters\u00a0of this size in Europe.\u00a0Providing thrust of up to 250 N,\u00a0it could suspend a\u00a025 kg\u00a0sack of cement on Earth, more than enough to orient a spacecraft or steer a rocket.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The European Space Agency (ESA) Future Launchers Preparatory\u00a0Programme\u00a0(FLPP)\u00a0prepares European industry for the future space ecosystem, supporting companies with promising technology for the future.\u00a0The first test firing was done just seven months\u00a0after signing the\u00a0initial\u00a0contract in June\u00a02023.\u00a0The\u00a0engine has now\u00a0passed\u00a0an extensive test campaign\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0Arkadia Space Test Center in the Castell\u00f3n\u00a0airport, Spain,\u00a0reaching technology readiness level six\u00a0within\u00a0two years from the contract signature.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The project includes tank prototypes that feed\u00a0the\u00a0ARIEL\u00a0thrusters\u00a0with\u00a0its propellant,\u00a0even\u00a0operating\u00a0in\u00a0efficient \u2018blowdown mode\u2019\u00a0whereby the hydrogen peroxide gases in the tank push the\u00a0liquid\u00a0fuel to the engine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Arkadia built\u00a0a test\u00a0bench inhouse\u00a0to\u00a0withstand\u00a0the\u00a0thrust and long burns over repeated\u00a0cycles\u00a0needed\u00a0to thoroughly test ARIEL.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the campaign ARIEL proved itself\u00a0by performing:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>over\u00a0178\u00a0seconds of specific impulse in\u00a0vacuum\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>continued steady firing\u00a0up to\u00a05\u00a0minutes\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>firing in short\u00a0pulses of\u00a0just\u00a040\u00a0milliseconds\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>over\u00a02000 pulses\u00a0in total\u00a0per engine\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>over\u00a0100\u00a0kg\u00a0of hydrogen peroxide fired per\u00a0engine\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<label style=\"display: block; font-size: 0.9em; color: #8197A6; margin: 3rem 0 -1rem 0;\">Embed code<\/label><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<textarea rows=\"4\" cols=\"60\">&lt;iframe width=&#8221;649&#8243; height=&#8221;360&#8243; src=&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8243; allow=&#8221;encrypted-media&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;\/iframe&gt;<\/textarea><\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Videos\/2025\/12\/Introducing_the_250_N_ARIEL_thruster?rand=772187\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spanish company Arkadia is developing a thruster called\u00a0ARIEL\u00a0(Attitude for Reusable and Innovative European Launchers).\u00a0Many satellites and rockets have two types of engines, one for moving large distances and one for&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":799824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/799824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}