Electrospray allows developers to make mobile-telephone-size engines for satellites and miniature spacecraft.

Electrospray allows developers to make mobile-telephone-size engines for satellites and miniature spacecraft.

The new technology is called colloid thruster or electrospray. Allows to make a new type of propulsion for miniature satellites. That technology can also be used as the guidance system for larger satellites. The system uses ionized liquid to make thrust.

Wikipedia tells this about the colloid thruster. "A colloid thruster (or "electrospray thruster") is a type of low thrust electric propulsion rocket engine that uses electrostatic acceleration of charged liquid droplets for propulsion. In a colloid thruster, charged liquid droplets are produced by an electrospray process and then accelerated by a static electric field. The liquid used for this application tends to be a low-volatility ionic liquid." (Wikipedia/colloid thruster).

Above: Molten Salt thruster.

Colloid thruster. Or electrospray engine diagram.

Above: Taylor cone. Electrospray diagram depicting the Taylor cone, jet and plume

The system can use any ion or anions that it can create. That also means salt water and Na+ Cl- ions can used as ions in ion thrusters.

"Like other ion thrusters, its benefits include high efficiency, thrust density, and specific impulse; however it has very low total thrust, on the order of micronewtons. It provides very fine attitude control or efficient acceleration of small spacecraft over long periods." (Wikipedia/colloid thruster)

In a colloid thruster, the system sprays ionized liquid into the ion engine through small tubes. Those tubes are called Taylor cones. The idea is simple. The system sprays ionized liquid to the engine through a layer. Where are the small holes. The system releases those ions into the chamber. Between that layer and acceleration net.

Nanotechnology can make this kind of system more effective. "Known as ATHENA (Adaptable THruster based on Electrospray powered by Nanotechnology), this system is one of three currently being developed by ESA to harness electrospray propulsion for space. ATHENA relies on conductive ionic-liquid salts as a fuel. This liquid flows through nano-textured conical emitters to be accelerated between an emitter and an extractor operating at different electric potentials. The interaction between the surface tension of the liquid and the applied electrostatic field forms ions that can be sprayed out at very high speeds (on the order of 20km/s), creating the force to move the satellite." (ScitechDaily.com/“Electrospray” Technology: Palm-Sized Propulsion for Future Space Missions)

Then the magnetized net above that layer pulls those ions through the net. There could be multiple layers of net. In some visions, the net that pulls ions through it is the graphene layer, where there are some magnetized metals. If the layer below the net also repels the ions or anions, that thing will increase the speed of those ions. The problem with ion engines is that their forward impacting force is weak.

In some visions, the ion engine will operate "the opposite way" when it requires more thrust. In that model, the ion cannons will shoot ions to the network or layer that acts as the sail. The idea is like in some Donald Duck cartoon, where a propeller pushes air to the sail. When ions push structure from inside. That structure acts like a sail. The problem is the heat that those ions will create. This kind of pushing ion engine requires a thermal pump-like laser-based system that pulls heat away from the layer.

The thing that makes this type of ion engine interesting is that they are not very big. There is the possibility that the ball-shaped structure will be covered by using that kind of ion thruster. That thing makes this ball-shaped craft "very highly" maneuverable. But the problem is the weak thrust. But as I wrote before, the system requires something that it can push.

https://www.matsusada.com/application/ps/electrospray/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-molten-salt-colloid-or-ILIS-based-thruster-as-a-simplified-schematic-diagram_fig3_348599889

https://scitechdaily.com/electrospray-technology-palm-sized-propulsion-for-future-space-missions/

https://www.wired.com/video/watch/this-is-dawn-the-first-interplanetary-explorer-to-use-ion-propulsion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloid_thruster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_cone

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