NASA's 'Green' Fuel Satellite Has Gone Through And Passed Its First Test

Less than a week after launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on June 25, NASA's Green Propellants Infusion Mission (GPIM) has passed its first test, successfully firing its five thrusters. The GPIM is fueled by a new "green" fuel that NASA expects may replace hydrazine, a toxic substance currently used by most spacecraft. The new fuel is of low toxicity, which makes it better both for the environment and for humans who have to work with things in preparation for a launch.

The mission propellers were activated to briefly reduce the orbit of the spacecraft as part of its "verification" phase, during which operators verified that the systems functioned as expected after launch.

"We had a textbook record," said Christopher McLean, GPIM principal investigator at Ball Aerospace, who helped build the spacecraft, in a statement from NASA. "The test operations were impeccable, and the propulsion subsystem is interacting with the small spacecraft as designed."

Over the next few months, GPIM will help NASA understand how the new fuel works in space. The mission will test both the fuel system and the propulsion system by performing three "descending burns", which take the spacecraft from a higher orbit to a lower one.

If successful, this new green fuel (which is actually salmon colored) could significantly reduce the cost of space travel. According to NASA, fuel, a hydroxylammonium nitrate-based fuel-propulsion mixture known as AF-M315E, is almost 50% more efficient than hydrazine. The propeller also has a higher density, which means that spacecraft could use less fuel for longer missions and that more fuel could be stored in containers of the same volume.

This first success in GPIM's mission marks a victory for scientists and engineers who have been working with green fuel over the past decade and predicts a safer and more efficient space flight future.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.space.com/green-propellant-satellite-success.html