USB-powered technology platform for laser ablative thrust generation

Abstract

Small satellites gave the opportunity to universities all over the world, allowing their students to participate in a complete satellite mission. After some years, the graduating students and the developing technologies for satellites as small as a 1 liter cube, have reached a point where a new type of space industry is developing and gaining importance. Despite all possibilities and components available for such systems, it is still a very difficult task to maneuver these satellites due to the lack of compact and efficient thruster systems. Here we demonstrate the compactification of a laser ablative thruster concept called MICROLAS. We verify the functionality of all sub components and demonstrate ablation under vacuum conditions.