Prototype thrusters designed for use on the Moon undergo key hot-fire testing
The prototype thrusters are designed for use with small rockets, in space, delivering enough power for flight path adjustments or altitude changes. They’re designed to be as small and efficient as possible, while also meeting the requirements of landing spacecraft on the Moon; their first likely use will be in Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, which is currently scheduled to fly on a Vulcan Centaur rocket in July 2021.
Peregrine is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, through which the agency has built a list of what amounts to approved vendors for building and flying lunar landers that can carry payloads to the Moon on its behalf. These thrusters are being developed under a separate program, NASA’s Thruster for the Advancement of Low-temperature Operation in Space (TALOS) project, but their work will contribute both to CLPS and to future spacecraft used in NASA’s Artemis series of lunar missions.
The design of the thrusters incorporates use of a propellant made up of nitrogen and monomethylhydrazine, which offers benefits like being able to burn at much lower temperatures without risk of freezing — their operating range is between -40 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas most traditional thrusters work at between 45 and 70 Fahrenheit. Their operating range has the side-benefit of not requiring conditioning hardware, which means they can work with less-bulky and power-hungry designs — both incredibly important when you’re building spacecraft.