ESA make an air breathing electric thuster

[RobDickinson]

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineeri...

What a cool thing. Basically an electric space jet engine.

They had an electric engine up there for 4 years but it ran out of propellant, now this one can scoop up that from the near vacuum of low orbit we can keep sats up for a long time without bothering with fuel..

Note also works in mars orbit etc... I guess the fun thing is you are only slowed down by drag which is your fuel, so the more drag the more fuel (or less, less need..)

[Beati Dogu]

Interesting. I wonder if this would suite the low orbiting satellites such as the ones SpaceX are working on.

[RobDickinson]

That's probably down to how much this ends up costing vs without and launch costs.

Spacex wifi sats will be relatively cheap but the upkeep of replacing them could make it worthwhile.

[annodomini2]

RobDickinson said:

That's probably down to how much this ends up costing vs without and launch costs.

Spacex wifi sats will be relatively cheap but the upkeep of replacing them could make it worthwhile.

It's also a mass thing as well as cost.

Smaller Sat, less weight, cheaper to put into orbit, cheaper to put loads of them up there.

Proposal was for 10,000 or so satellites, so they are probably going to be small and cheap.