HYDROS® Thruster
Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (AMERGINT)
HYDROS® is a green, water-based hybrid electrical/chemical propulsion thruster from Tethers Unlimited, available in CubeSat (HYDROS-C) and micro-satellite (HYDROS-M) configurations.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Power
- 5 W
- Thrust
- 1.2 N
- Specific impulse
- 310 s
- Total impulse
- 2,151 N·s
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Hydros-c specific impulse
- > 310 s
- Hydros-c thrust
- > 1.2 N
- Hydros-c power
- 5-25 W
- Hydros-c total impulse
- > 2,151 Ns
- Hydros-c water tanks
- Customizable
- Hydros-m specific impulse
- > 310 s
- Hydros-m thrust
- > 1.2 N
- Hydros-m power
- 7-40 W
- Hydros-m total impulse
- > 18,000 Ns
- Hydros-m water tanks
- Customizable
- Hydros-m form factor
- Fits inside a 15" separation ring
- Flight heritage
- Flight units delivered; NASA used HYDROS-C on the first Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator mission
About
The HYDROS® Propulsion System is a ‘hybrid’ electrical/chemical propulsion technology that provides safe, high-thrust, high fuel economy propulsion for satellites. It uses water as propellant, making it safe for personnel during satellite integration and posing no significant risks to primary payloads during launch. Once on-orbit, HYDROS uses an electrolysis system designed for zero-G operation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which are combusted as a bi-propellant through a rocket nozzle. It provides higher thrust efficiencies while requiring lower input power than electric propulsion technologies, and provides higher specific impulse than monopropellant chemical propulsion. HYDROS is a modular and scalable system, currently available in two flight-qualified configurations, with Tethers Unlimited (TUI) able to customize designs to specific mission needs. HYDROS-M is sized for micro-satellites and is designed to fit inside a 15-inch separation ring. HYDROS-C is sized for CubeSat spacecraft. The size and configuration of the water tank can be tailored to fit the mission requirements of the spacecraft. HYDROS also includes integrated avionics to greatly simplify the commanding interface and integration with the host spacecraft. Flight heritage includes NASA’s use of TUI’s HYDROS®-C unit on the first Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator mission, and flight units of HYDROS-M have been delivered.
Documentation
- hydros-updated-.pdf PDF source: web.archive.org ↗
- TUI-DATA-SHEETS-2-compressed.pdf web.archive.org ↗
Need the full ICD, test reports or a specific revision? Ask the supplier directly.