New Delhi, Apr 17: A Mumbai-based startup has completed the space validation of its green propulsion system, which seeks to provide an alternative to hydrazine, a highly toxic and carcinogenic fuel used to power spacecraft.
Manastu Space, founded by IIT-Mumbai alumni Tushar Jadhav and Ashtesh Kumar, said its Vyom-2U thruster completed 1,152 orbits of the earth onboard ISRO’s POEM-4 platform, which hosted 23 other payloads to conduct various experiments in the low earth orbit.
“With green propellant MS289 — a blend of hydrogen peroxide and proprietary additives — we’ve proven a safer and cleaner alternative to toxic fuels,” Jadhav, the CEO of Manastu Space, told PTI.
Vyom-2U completed 700 seconds of cumulative firing in orbit, including 360 seconds of continuous burn and more than 20 restarts during its over two-month stay in orbit.
The PSLV Orbital Experiment Module (POEM-4) was launched on December 30 last year after ISRO’s warhorse rocket placed in orbit two SpaDeX satellites. The POEM platform uses the spent fourth stage of the PSLV rocket for carrying out experiments in orbit.
The POEM-4 platform was successfully de-orbited and safely crashed in the Indian Ocean earlier this month.
Manastu’s thruster was fired up for the first time on December 31, when it tilted the 1,408-kg POEM-4 platform at an angle of 24 degrees using 1 Newton of thrust. The thruster was powered up for the last time on March 13 and had functioned normally, and all its components were fully operational, the startup said. (PTI)
