It’s finally in. The last piece of the puzzle. The EMI-BF4 ionic liquid fuel for the AIS-ILIS1 just arrived today. Everything should now be in for this massive ignition test. Still a ton of prep work to do, but we are now within a week of testing! More details to come!
I have to give a massive shout out and thanks to all of my Patrons supporting this development at AIS. This liquid is honestly quite costly, but your contributions this past month helped cover the cost. It is the lifeblood of this thruster. Thank you!!!
With everything in, preparations are heavily under way. I have to just test and confirm the replacement roughing pump I purchased on eBay. Once that is officially confirmed, then we are a go for testing. I will update pumping status soon, and the expected fueling and test date.
This will be by far the biggest test I have ever done with this effort, and the most high stakes and involved engineering project I have ever worked on. This test is much bigger than myself though – it is a step towards a fundamental shift in EP and the nanosatellite field.