ThrustMe explained

Trade Name:ThrustMe
Founder:Ane Aanesland, Dmytro Rafalskyi
Hq Location Country:France
Key People:Ane Aanesland (CEO), Dmytro Rafalskyi (CTO)
Num Employees:21–50
Website:https://www.thrustme.fr/

ThrustMe is a deep tech company that designs miniaturized aerospace thrusters for small satellites, increasing the life of satellites and making them more affordable.[1] [2]

The company builds gridded ion thrusters (NPT30)[3] and cold gas thrusters (I2T5).[4]

History

ThrustMe was founded in 2017 by Ane Aanesland and Dmytro Rafalskyi, who previously worked at the École Polytechnique and CNRS as researchers in plasma physics and electric propulsion.[5] Initially, the startup was incubated in Agoranov.[6] Also in 2017, ThrustMe raised 1.7 million euros for its development.[7]

In 2018, ThrustMe received €2.4 million from the European Commission to commercialise electric propulsion for nanosatellites.[8]

In 2019, Ane Aanesland received the CNRS innovation medal for her entrepreneurial activities.[9] The same year, SpaceTy and ThrustMe maneuvered for the first time a satellite using iodine as propellant, with a cold-gas thruster.[10]

In 2021, ThrustMe, in partnership with SpaceTy, achieved the first in-orbit demonstration of an electric propulsion system powered by iodine.[11] [12] The results were published as a research article in the journal Nature, where the maneuvers described resulted in a cumulative altitude change above 3 km.[13] [14]

According to the European Space Agency, in regard to the use of iodine rather than Xenon in a gridded ion thruster, "This small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up."[15]

Flight missions

Ongoing

Announced

Awards

References

  1. Web site: fr. Lestavel. Thomas. La start-up ThrustMe divise par trois les coûts d'accès à l'espace. Le Figaro.fr. 2019-04-17. 2021-01-22.
  2. Web site: en. How Iodine Electric Propulsion Systems Can Enable The Economic Sustainability Of Satellite Constellations.. satmagazine.com. February 2021. 2021-07-26.
  3. Web site: en. French startup demonstrates iodine propulsion in potential boost for space debris mitigation efforts. Spacenews. 2020-03-25. 2021-07-26.
  4. Web site: en. Iodine Impulse for Smallsats Demo'd On-Orbit by ThrustMe and Spacety. Smallsat News. 2019-11-25. 2021-07-26.
  5. Web site: fr-FR. Un nouvel espace pour les start-up. La Jaune et la Rouge. 2018-06-03. 2020-04-23.
  6. Meddah. Hassan. 2017-07-08. ThrustMe emmène les minisatellites en orbite. L'Usine Nouvelle. fr-FR. subscription. 2021-07-26.
  7. Web site: en-US. French startup raises $1.9 million for smallsat electric propulsion. SpaceNews.com. 2017-06-16. 2020-04-23.
  8. Web site: en-US. Electric propulsion startup ThrustMe gets $2.8 million from European Commission. SpaceNews.com. 2018-08-09. 2020-04-23.
  9. Web site: fr-FR. Ane Aanesland, de chercheuse au CNRS à CEO de ThrustMe Bpifrance servir l'avenir. www.bpifrance.fr. 10 July 2019. 2020-04-23.
  10. fr-FR. Alexandre. Couto. ThrustMe met en orbite le premier satellite utilisant de l'iode pour se propulser. Industry-techno. 2019-11-04. 2020-04-23.
  11. Web site: en. ThrustMe's Iodine Propulsion System Launched Aboard Spacety's Smallsat. Satnews. 2020-11-06. 2021-07-26.
  12. Web site: en. Iodine thruster could slow space junk accumulation. esa.int. 2021-01-22. 2021-07-26.
  13. Rafalskyi . Dmytro . Martínez Martínez . Javier . Habl . Lui . Zorzoli Rossi . Elena . Proynov . Plamen . Boré . Antoine . Baret . Thomas . Poyet . Antoine . Lafleur . Trevor . Dudin . Stanislav . Aanesland . Ane . 17 November 2021 . In-orbit demonstration of an iodine electric propulsion system . Nature . 599 . 411–415 . 7885. 10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y . 34789903 . 8599014 . Both atomic and molecular iodine ions are accelerated by high-voltage grids to generate thrust, and a highly collimated beam can be produced with substantial iodine dissociation..
  14. Web site: In a space first, scientists test ion thrusters powered by iodine . Ravisetti . Monisha . 18 November 2021 . . . 2021-11-29.
  15. Web site: Iodine thruster used to change the orbit of a small satellite for the first time ever . . 22 January 2021 . www.esa.int . The European Space Agency . 2021-11-29.
  16. Web site: en. Andrew. Jones. French startup ThrustMe found fast route to orbit through China's Spacety. 2019-11-25. 2021-07-30.
  17. News: 6 November 2020. ThrustMe's Iodine Propulsion System Launched Aboard Spacety's Smallsat. Sat News. 1 September 2021.
  18. News: Werner . Debra . Spacety launches satellite to test ThrustMe iodine electric propulsion and constellation technologies . 1 September 2021 . Space News . 6 November 2020.
  19. Web site: en. Andrew. Jones. China launches first Long March 8 from Wenchang spaceport. Spacenews. 2020-03-25. 2021-07-26.
  20. Web site: en. Imagery from Hisea-1 SAR Satellite Unveiled. 2020-12-30. 2021-07-30.
  21. News: Iodine Electric Propulsion To Become A Critical Subsystem For SAR Constellations . 1 September 2021 . Sat News . 3 January 2021.
  22. Web site: Norway Selects Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to Develop Technology Demonstrator Microsatellite UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory. 2021-11-25. www.utias-sfl.net.
  23. Web site: Romsenter. Norsk. Agreement signed with the Netherlands for Norway's new satellite. 2021-11-25. Norwegian Space Agency.
  24. Web site: ESA and GomSpace sign contract for continuation of the GOMX-5 mission. 2021-11-25. News Powered by Cision. en.
  25. Web site: GOMX 5A, 5B. 2021-11-25. Gunter's Space Page. en.
  26. Web site: INSPIRESAT-4/ARCADE : a VLEO mission for atmospheric temperature measurements and ionospheric plasma characterization. 2021-11-26. Nanyang Technological University. en.
  27. Web site: INSPIRESat-4. 2021-11-26. University of Colorado. en.
  28. Web site: fr-FR. Les 70 startups internationales lauréates du french tech ticket saison 2. finances.gouv.fr. 27. 2017-03-07. 2021-07-26.
  29. Web site: fr-FR. Quatre projets lauréats du Concours i-LAB 2017 (dont un Grand Prix) sont accompagnés par la SATT Paris-Saclay. SATT Paris-Saclay. 2017-07-07. 2021-07-26.
  30. Web site: en-FR. Palmarès Spécial Innovation Spatiale 2017 -. 2020-04-23.
  31. Web site: Poncet. Guerric. 2019-11-28. Ane Aanesland, la mécano de l'espace. subscription. 2020-04-23. Le Point. fr-FR.
  32. Web site: fr-FR. Martin. Koppe. Four Aces for Innovation. news.cnrs.fr. 2019-12-09. 2021-07-26.

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