Testing, 1,2,3
Arkadia built a test bench inhouse to withstand the thrust and long burns over repeated cycles needed to thoroughly test ARIEL.
Throughout the campaign ARIEL proved itself by performing:
- over 178 seconds of specific impulse in vacuum
- continued steady firing up to 5 minutes
- firing in short pulses of just 40 milliseconds
- over 2000 pulses in total per engine
- over 100 kg of hydrogen peroxide fired per engine
“We are very happy to see the results of this project,” says ESA’s Bernard Decotignie, “Arkadia showed a quick turnaround, and the results speak for themselves, it was a great collaboration with our propulsion experts working closely together to achieve a robust, innovative product and in record time.”
“Thanks to the FLPP contract and ESA experts’ guidance, we managed to develop a thruster that rapidly got market traction. Following the activity, ARIEL has continued to evolve, demonstrating soon its capability as a product ready to be sold,” says Ismael Gutierrez, Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer of Arkadia Space, “we are excited to have won the contract to supply ARIEL as the thruster for the reaction control system of MaiaSpace, and we hope soon to sign more contracts related to reaction control systems for big spacecrafts and space vehicles. The ESA FLPP contract has been instrumental for us”