ATHENA-Pi: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND MARKET INTRODUCTION

Small satellite manufacturers, integrators, and their clients have proven reluctant to incorporate on-board propulsion since it comes in conflict with the already stringent payload requirements.

These power/volume/mass constraints have limited historical adoption to under 7% and 1% in the nano- and pico-satellite classes.In response to the perceived market need, ienai SPACE is developing ATHENA (Adaptable Thruster based on Electrospray for Nano-/micro-/pico-satellites) an innovative electric thruster for on-board propulsion based on electrospray technology, which represents a step change in comparison to the current state-of-the-art Electric Propulsion (EP) devices; our first product is the ATHENA-π, a pico-satellite version which is currently in development and is expected to begin commercialization in 2022Adding on-board propulsion systems will allow for custom operational orbits, cost-effective deployment of satellite constellations and increased mission lifetime in Low Earth Orbit.

In addition, these systems would allow for collision avoidance and controlled deorbiting maneuvers, mitigating the growing space debris issue.The overall work plan is focused on the activities which will take ATHENA-π from a flight qualification campaign, to take place in January of 2022 (with a backup for March of 2022) to commercial success, including the initial scale-up industrialization efforts and supporting financial structure.