While I am still waiting on the new vacuum roughing pump to arrive for testing (yet again more UPS delays), I have been still pushing forward to prepare everything for the big ignition test.
I went through the final preliminary assembly checks and practice assembly for the ILIS1 to make sure everything fit correctly. The emitter disc, porous reservoir, distal electrode, and spring contact all fit perfectly inside the 3D printed housing without issue. The final dry mass of the V4 system is around 39 grams – much less than I was expecting!
At only 39 grams dry mass and 45x45x16mm in size, the ILIS1 is the only completely integrated ion thruster out there compatible down to PocketQube class satellites! Hopefully we are less than a week away from the very first firing of this highly anticipated thruster!