mondie
@ripper your bio sounds very interesting, may I ask what kind of propulsion systems you are working with? classical liquid propellant engines? ion engines? other fun stuff? :)
Apr 2, 2025 at 10:23pmWeb
Show threadripperApr 3, 2025
@mondie I'm kinda involved in everything that we do, this means chemical propulsion (1-10N, Monopropellant, Bi-propellant with green propellants like HTP, Ethane and Nitrous oxide). Also we work on FEEP (you maybe heard of Enpulsion? They are producing and selling the technology) with Indium.
I'm usually more on the materials and manufacturing side of all these technologies. :)
Show threadmondieApr 3, 2025

@ripper hall effect thrusters, ion thrusters and related technologies are definitely something to keep an eye on in the next few years and decades! I have not heard of Empulsion yet, as I work more in the software department (we're one of the main companies providing UI and workspaces to ESA and also NASA and JAXA to a degree). so, what do you oxidize with all your N2O and H2O2? :)

and if I may ask is there a reason why LOX+LH2 engines are not on the clean list? because of the cumbersome LH2? 😉

Show threadmondieApr 3, 2025
@ripper using ethane as a green propellant is somewhat confusing to me, as you are still working with hydrocarbons as the main fuel source. for me the cleanest rocket engine will always be hydrogen and oxygen ^^ would you like to elaborate?
Show threadripperApr 4, 2025
@mondie The thrusters we are working on are 1 to 10N thrusters meant to go on satellites. We're not working on launcher engines. In this range the industry standard is hydrazine. And everything that's better than hydrazine is considered green propellant.
Also for this application, propellants need to be storable to a certain degree which cryogenics aren't. Or at least not at this scale of engine.
Show threadmondieApr 4, 2025
@ripper oh ... I see now. of course anything is green compared to hydrazine, haha. here in our office we have books that describe launch stages that use hydrazine, which is kind of unsettling 😅 probably a history book. cool I have not heard not Empulsion yet, sounds interesting! the space industry is quite an ecosystem to explore.
Show threadripperApr 5, 2025
@mondie Hydrazine still used a lot, as it simply works™️
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting companies developing interesting technology!
You mentioned the company you work for develops software for ESA and other agencies. What kind of software exactly do you work on? :)
Show threadmondieApr 9, 2025
@ripper Mostly we provide dashboards around Earth Observation but we generally work with anything that involves looking down at Earth for scientific value :) although right now we are currently working on a new major version so this is the old one. Here you can have a look at the datasets: https://www.eodashboard.org/explore?indicator=E10e&x=0&y=-695746.81746&z=3.16993
Earth Observing Dashboard

The Earth Observing Dashboard combines the resources, technical knowledge and expertise of three partner agencies ESA, JAXA, and NASA to strengthen our global understanding of the changing environment with human activity.

Earth Observing Dashboard