The GIESEPP MP project, co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 program, is set to conclude in December of 2024, marking a pivotal milestone in the development of advanced electric propulsion systems for space applications.
Building on the groundwork of the earlier GIESEPP project (Gridded Ion Engine Standardized Electric Propulsion Platform), the restructured consortium successfully demonstrated the operability of a prototype-like system in a relevant environment, and fully validated the operating points of GIESEPP MP, setting new standards for efficiency and performance.
A key highlight was the final Electric Propulsion System (EPS) coupling test campaign, conducted at Aerospazio Tecnologie’s LVTF-3 vacuum facility in Italy. The campaign brought together the ArianeGroup RIT2X thruster, Airbus Crisa’s PPU, and Airbus-DS fluidic regulator to validate the functional performance of the coupled Electric Propulsion System. Covering mission-critical phases such as orbit raising and station keeping, the tests characterized the RIT2X thruster’s plume and provided important data on thrust, divergence, ion energy and other performance metrics.
The project also incorporated a market assessment conducted by Airbus, which revealed promising opportunities for the technology developed under GIESEPP MP. Specifically, GEO, communication satellites and space exploration missions stand to benefit significantly from the advancements, with the potential for important mass savings and propulsion function cost optimization, used for satellite transfer and operation phases.
The RIT2X thruster, developed by ArianeGroup Germany, exemplifies cutting-edge propulsion technology. One of the largest RF Ion Thrusters ever created, it leverages Xenon gas to produce thrust through ionization and electrostatic acceleration, supported by Airbus Crisa’s Power Processing Unit (PPU), which ensures precise management and operation.
As the GIESEPP MP project concludes, the consortium members are committed to leveraging the knowledge gained and exploring new applications of this technology as they move forward to deliver the final product to the market.
The GIESEPP MP project was implemented by the consortium formed by ArianeGroup GmbH (Germany) to provide thruster engineering and project coordination, Airbus Defence & Space (France) for mission requirements and systems engineering, Aerospazio Tecnologie (Italy) as system testing experts, Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen (Germany) taking care of thruster level tests and scientific support, CRISA (Spain) in charge of the power processing unit and WIT Berry (Latvia) for all communication and dissemination purposes.
Christian Knorr, ArianeGroup Project Manager and GIESEPP MP Consortium Coordinator said, “With the successful completion of GIESEPP MP Europe has made an enormous step forward towards high ISP electric propulsion systems. In parallel to the product maturation and validation activities, industrial scale series production has been prepared and we will soon be able to serve the European and worldwide market with outstanding electric propulsion products.”