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Neumann Drive successfully tested in space

Company images of a Neumann Drive at upper left with it’s plasma discharge produced in the lab at upper right overlayed above the Earth from space. Credits: Neumann Space / NASA

Neumann Space has announced completion of initial on-orbit tests of its innovative electric propulsion system, the first of its kind utilizing solid metal as propellent to fuel a cathodic arc discharge to generate thrust via plasma exhaust. The commissioning campaign for the system confirmed that the electronics worked properly and that the thruster fired. Next up: following last December’s launch of the company’s second experiment in space, an engineering demonstration later this year will test that the propulsion system can change the orbit of a satellite.

Neumann Space has already lined up both a customer and a potential space-based source of fuel through a partnership with CisLunar Industries. In this symbiotic relationship, CisLunar will utilize Neumann’s thruster to propel their servicing vehicle that hunts down chunks of metallic space debris which will be captured and delivered to a salvage platform to be recycled into metal propellent via CisLunar’s Modular Space Foundry (previously called Micro Space Foundry). The servicing vehicle can then refuel itself to proceed to its next target. SSP reported previously on this propulsion ecosystem which could literally turn trash into treasure while cleaning up orbital debris.

Conceptional illustration of propulsion ecosystem based on CisLunar Industries Modular Space Foundry process for recycling orbital debris. Credits: CisLunar Industries

The orbital debris issue not only poses a serious threat to human spaceflight in Earth orbit, unless policies and standard practices are implemented to mitigate the issue, remote sensing, climate monitoring, weather forecasting and all commercial activities in space could be at risk, not to mention long term sustainable space settlement. The on-orbit recycling partnership between Neumann Space and CisLunar Industries will help implement the remediation pillar of the National Orbital Debris Mitigation Plan promulgated in 2022 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In other news, CisLunar Industries was one of fourteen other companies selected by DARPA for its LunA-10 program, a lunar architecture study that will define commercial activities in an integrated infrastructure for lunar development over the next 10 years. CisLunar will collaborate with industry partners to develop what they call METAL, a framework for Material Extraction, Treatment, Assembly & Logistics in a lunar economy based on in situ resource utilization.

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Converting orbital trash to treasure with CisLunar Industries’ Micro Space Foundry

Illustration of orbital debris recycling. Instead of deorbiting after a few missions, debris removal spacecraft can refuel themselves with metal propellant using the Micro Space Foundry extending the lifespan and lowering costs. Credits: CisLunar Industries

CisLunar Industries is developing an innovative way to clean up Earth orbit by recycling spent rocket stages and other orbital debris using their Micro Space Foundry (MSF). In a March 2 presentation to the Future In-Space Operations telecon, CisLunar CEO Gary Calnan described the technology and markets for the MSF, development of which was funded by an SBIR/STTR grant from NASA. There is a vast untapped value chain of metals high above our heads. Over the last 60 years as satellites have been launched into space, the used upper stages have been cluttering up low Earth orbit and beyond. But the trash has value because it is useful material in orbit that has already incurred the launch cost.

The system works by robotically cutting aluminum feedstock off of derelict satellites and then processing the metal through the MSF using electromagnetic levitation furnace technologies originally proven on the ISS for virtually contactless metal recycling and reuse in a weightless environment. The MSF spits out rods of “fuel” to feed a Neumann Thruster on the debris removal spacecraft, which can then be powered to deorbit the target satellite and move on to its next destination. Rinse and repeat. The architecture has the potential to change the economics of the cislunar economy by harvesting a valuable in situ resource while cleaning up Earth orbit at the same time.

The Neumann Thruster, invented by Dr. Patrick “Paddy” Neumann, is an electric propulsion system for in-space use which is a highly adjustable, efficient and scalable method for moving satellites where they are needed. The Neumann Drive uses solid metal propellant and electricity to produce thrust via a pulsed cathodic arc system analogous to an arc welder. Neumann, who created the company Neumann Space to commercialize his invention, explains the physics behind the thruster in a video of an early prototype.

CisLunar Industries has other applications planned for the MSF in an emerging in-space ecosystem. In addition to extruding metallic rods as propellant, the system can fabricate long tubes for large-scale space structures or wires for additive manufacturing enabling an in-space commodities value chain and creating demand for processed metals.

Conceptual illustration of the MSF core processing unit, utilizing a modular design to enable lower cost flexible deployment and multiple products in an emerging cislunar economy. Credits: CisLunar Industries

So how mature is the technology? CisLunar has already demonstrated component validation in the lab taking the system to TRL 4. You can see a video documenting the experiment at timestamp 35:54 here. A parabolic flight to run an experiment in simulated weightlessness is scheduled for later this year. Actual in-space end-to-end demonstration with a Neumann Thruster is planned in 2024 via an agreement with Australian space services company Skykraft.