{"id":535464,"date":"2026-06-14T23:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/535464\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:18:16","slug":"mits-new-rocket-system-could-help-tiny-satellites-travel-all-the-way-to-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/535464\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT’s new rocket system could help tiny satellites travel all the way to Mars |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MIT's Small satellites called CubeSats are cheap to build and easy to launch, but they have one big problem. They can either move fast or move far, not both, because chemical thrusters and electric thrusters need different fuels. Now, engineers at MIT<\/a> have found a way around this. They have tested a new propulsion system where a single fuel powers both a chemical thruster and tiny electric thrusters called electrospray thrusters. This means a small satellite could use one engine for quick, powerful moves and the other for slow, steady, long-distance travel, all from the same fuel tank. The idea is now set for its first real test in space later this year, as part of a mission run with NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is MIT’s new dual-mode propulsion system for small satellites<\/p>\n

The core idea behind this new system is simple: use one fuel for two very different jobs. Chemical thrusters give a strong, fast push, which is useful when a satellite needs to change direction quickly or speed up in a hurry. Electric thrusters, on the other hand, give a very gentle but steady push that uses much less fuel, which is better for slow journeys across long distances. Until now, spacecraft needed separate fuel tanks for each type of thruster, which made small satellites heavier and more complicated to build. According to the MIT News report <\/a> on the study, the new system removes this problem by using a single propellant for both, freeing up space and weight for other instruments.<\/p>\n

How electrospray thrusters work and why they matter for CubeSats<\/p>\n

Electrospray thrusters are some of the smallest rocket engines ever made, roughly the size of a coin. They work by using an electric field to pull charged particles out of a liquid fuel and shoot them into space, which creates a small but steady push. Because they use very little fuel for the thrust they produce, they are perfect for satellites that need to travel slowly over long distances without running out of power. The team behind this research, led by MIT’s Space Propulsion Laboratory, has spent years building and testing these tiny thrusters for satellites as small as a lunchbox or a small suitcase. Their small size and low fuel use make them a natural fit for CubeSats, which have very little room for extra fuel tanks.<\/p>\n

ASCENT fuel: The green propellant that could power two types of thrusters<\/p>\n

The fuel that makes this dual-mode system possible is called ASCENT, short for Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic propellant. It was originally developed by the U.S. Air Force as a safer replacement for hydrazine, a common rocket fuel that is highly toxic and difficult to handle. ASCENT is a type of ionic liquid, basically a salt that stays liquid even in the cold and low pressure of space. It had already been tested in chemical thrusters during NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission<\/a>, which proved the fuel could safely replace hydrazine in space. What the MIT team has now shown is that the same fuel also works well in electrospray thrusters, something that had not been tested before.<\/p>\n

Testing the new thruster system: How MIT researchers ran the experiment<\/p>\n

To test ASCENT in electrospray thrusters, the researchers filled small fuel tanks, each about the size of a Lego brick, with just one gram of the propellant. They mounted these tiny thrusters on opposite sides of a CubeSat and placed it on a special platform called a MagLev test stand inside a vacuum chamber. This setup allowed the satellite to float freely, mimicking the weightless conditions of space. By applying different levels of electric voltage, the team made the thrusters fire and spin the CubeSat around like a slowly spinning top. The thrusters ran continuously for periods of up to 100 hours, and the results showed that ASCENT worked just as well in electrospray thrusters as the fuels normally used for this purpose.<\/p>\n

NASA’s Green Propulsion Dual Mode mission: The first in-space test<\/p>\n

The next step is to test this system in actual space. MIT has built four electrospray thrusters that will fly on NASA’s Green Propulsion Dual Mode mission, known as GPDM. This mission uses a CubeSat about the size of a briefcase, carrying one chemical thruster and four electrospray thrusters, all connected to a single ASCENT fuel tank. The study describing this work, published in the Journal of Propulsion and Power<\/a>, explains how the ground tests were carried out before this mission. GPDM will be the first time a satellite uses one shared fuel tank for both chemical and electric propulsion in orbit, and the mission is expected to launch later this year.<\/p>\n

What this means for future CubeSat missions to Mars and beyond<\/p>\n

If the GPDM mission goes well, it could open the door to much more ambitious journeys for small satellites. A CubeSat could use its electrospray thrusters to slowly travel all the way to Mars or the asteroid belt, saving fuel along the way. Once it gets closer to its target, it could switch to its chemical thruster for quick, sharp moves, such as adjusting its path to get a better look at an interesting feature. This kind of flexibility was simply not possible before, since carrying two separate fuel systems was too heavy and too complex for such small spacecraft. The same idea could also help with missions closer to home, such as quickly sending a group of small satellites to watch a storm forming on Earth, then letting them slowly settle into their long-term positions afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Small satellites called CubeSats are cheap to build and easy to launch, but they have one big problem.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[230272,230275,230273,18,230271,19,17,3516,230270,1024,230274,133,451],"class_list":["post-535464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ascent-propellant","tag-cubesat-missions-to-mars","tag-dual-mode-propulsion","tag-eire","tag-electrospray-thrusters","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mit","tag-mit-cubesat-propulsion-system","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-green-propulsion-dual-mode-mission","tag-science","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116751021929357640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}