On August 16th 2020, I ran the third ignition test of the AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster. This post will recap the details of the test. The first phase of the test, degassing and baking the ionic liquid fuel and … Continued
With the recent completion of the first round of testing for the AIS-ILIS1 Ionic Liquid Electrospray Thruster, work has already begun to move fast on the next gen AIS-ILIS2 Ionic Liquid Electrospray Thruster. I am pleased to present a look … Continued
The other night I was in for quite a shock looking at the laser cut extractor apertures for the ILIS1 under the microscope for the first time. If I put them on the thruster as is, there would be no … Continued
Once again shipping errors are causing massive delays for delivery of thruster parts, this time FedEx with the new enhanced 3D printed Ultem 1010 housings for the ILIS1. So, I decided to take a Dremel to the old one and … Continued
New laser cut enhanced extractors for the AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster are in! Got a couple of different aperture widths at 0.5mm wide and 0.4mm wide along the central region to experiment with. Unfortunately I’m not too happy with … Continued
The new V6 boards for the AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster are in from OSHPark! Changes to this iteration include the addition of surge protection resistors between the relay outputs and emitter connection, as well as between the filter cap … Continued
Pushing forward on the AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster for PocketQubes, I am pleased to finally reveal the first concept model of the first ever AIS-ILIS ionic liquid electrospray cluster for Cubesats! This marks a new push into ultra-low cost, … Continued
In my previous post, I revealed a look at the new enhanced extractor design for the AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster. Continuing with the design overview, here is a look at field simulations for the extractor. This first set of … Continued
Here is a look at the new enhanced extractor design for the next AIS-ILIS1 ionic liquid electrospray thruster iteration. The slit width has been decreased significantly, while introducing a flare at the emitter corners to keep field enhancement higher across … Continued
Here is a first look at the new enhanced case design already in production for the AIS-ILIS1 electrospray thruster! Taking lessons from the recent ignition test and subsequent post-test thruster analysis, the case design needed major rework to minimize liquid … Continued