This tiny, fingernail-length space engine chip runs on the greenest fuel of all: water. The operation of this electrolytic engine, designed to perform maneuvers of the smallest classes of satellites CubeSat It is based on catalyzed iridium (ICE-Cube Thruster) electrolysis, developed jointly with Imperial College in Great Britain.

Eliminating the need for bulky gaseous fuel storage, a suitable electrolyser passes a 20-watt current through water to produce hydrogen and oxygen to start the engine.

The ICE-Cube Thruster is so small (the length of its combustion chamber and nozzle is less than 1 mm) that it can only be assembled using the MEMS (microelectric mechanical systems) approach, techniques borrowed from the microelectronics sector.

The test campaign achieved a thrust of 1.25 mN with a given thrust of 185 seconds continuously. The tests were carried out as part of ESA’s General Support Technology Risk Mitigation program to verify engine performance during laboratory testing.

Experimental data collected during this activity will assist in the development of a flight representative “engineering model” of the propulsion system, including the electrolyzer. This development will be managed by URA Thrusters in collaboration with Imperial. Source