Uvireso Bismuth Hall-Effect Thruster
UVIRESO Space
Hall-effect thruster under development that replaces xenon with solid bismuth propellant, targeting up to 3.5x longer missions or extra payload capacity for micro- and small-satellites.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Power
- 100 W
- Specific impulse
- 1,400 s
- Design life
- 3.5 years
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
- Propellant
- Bismuth (replaces xenon/krypton)
- Operating power range
- 100-500 W
- Specific impulse
- ~1400 s
- Mission life extension vs. xenon
- Up to 3.5x
- Target satellite class
- Micro- and small-satellites
- Typical use cases
- Collision avoidance, phasing, station-keeping, EOL disposal
- Development status
- In development; targeting space qualification by 2028
About
Uvireso is developing a Hall-effect thruster (HET) that uses bismuth instead of the industry-standard xenon or krypton as propellant. Bismuth is dense, abundant, low-cost and solid at room temperature, which removes the need for high-pressure tanks and valves: the propellant cannot leak or explode during launch or operation, can be cast into any tank shape to suit a given satellite, and is far easier to handle during integration and in-orbit servicing than pressurized noble-gas systems.
Because of bismuth’s higher atomic mass and density, the thruster offers an improved thrust-to-power ratio and lets operators trade propellant volume for either extended mission life (up to 3.5x versus xenon) or additional payload mass. The design targets an operating range of 100-500 W with a specific impulse of roughly 1400 s, sized for micro- and small-satellite missions such as collision avoidance, phasing, station-keeping and end-of-life disposal on both LEO and GEO platforms.
Development work currently spans electric/magnetic topology and plasma-formation simulation, electron gun and electron-transport testing, thruster-channel thermal and anode-flow modelling, and dedicated bismuth wettability and ionization test stands operated in Uvireso’s in-house vacuum facility in Vilnius. The company is targeting space qualification of the thruster by 2028 and is seeking satellite integrators and consortia partners for co-development of HET sub-systems.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.