‘Green’ Spaceship Propellant Set to Crater Fuel Costs and Replace Ultra-Toxic Hydrazine with Peroxide

‘Green’ Spaceship Propellant Set to Crater Fuel Costs and Replace Ultra-Toxic Hydrazine with Peroxide

‘Green’ Spaceship Propellant Set to Crater Fuel Costs and Replace Ultra-Toxic Hydrazine with Peroxide A D-ORBIT spacecraft that tested a hydrogen peroxide-powered thruster – credit, Arkadia Space A Spanish startup has successfully tested a new thruster for spacecraft that runs on a ‘green’ propellant to replace the ultra-toxic hydrazine commonly used in the industry. It uses hydrogen peroxide, and is then not only less toxic but also substantially less expensive to run. Arkadia Space, which invented the thruster system, celebrated an in-orbit demonstration in early June. Codenamed the DARK propulsion system, it powered an ION spacecraft from the aerospace company D-ORBIT during a controlled test in which the propellant was able to generate 5 newtons of thrust during thousands of small, fraction-of-a-second firings, as well as longer steady burns of five seconds or longer. “What we have found is that it is exactly the same as the ground data,” Francho Garcia, chief executive and co-founder …