Busek is one of the leaders in the development and manufacture of high-performance in-space thrusters, sensors, and subsystems. From technology pathfinders to turnkey systems for satellite constellations, the firm’s products provide thrust for challenging government and commercial missions. Busek’s broad technology portfolio, experience across multiple space propulsion disciplines, and unique manufacturing, test, and flight expertise, enable it to provide unbiased solutions to best-fit customer needs.
Busek has provided a wide range of thrusters, electronics, space systems, research, and complete mission and system engineering support for customers including the major aerospace primes, NASA, and the US Air Force. Busek’s flight heritage includes products developed for AFRL TacSat-2, USAFA FalconSat-3, FalconSat-5, and NASA/ESA Lisa Pathfinder.
Busek’s thruster portfolio includes Hall Thrusters, Electrospray Thrusters, RF Ion Thrusters, and Monopropellant Thrusters that are developed and assembled in-house maintaining high volume and high reliability.
Hall Thrusters: Hall thrusters generate thrust by creating and accelerating ionized gas via an electric field. With no moving mechanical parts and a simple electrical layout, Hall thrusters are extremely reliable with no on-orbit thruster failures have been reported to date.
Electrospray Thruster: Electrospray thrusters are characterized by precise thrust control (on the order of nano-Newtons) and extremely efficient operation (over 80%). This makes them the superior solution for ultra-precise spacecraft pointing, with pointing accuracy exceeding that of reaction wheels alone by ~2 orders of magnitude.
RF Ion Thruster: In the sub-100W system range, scaling conventional EP Hall thrusters is prohibitively inefficient. The 6U CubeSat form factor is unfavorable for any pressure vessels. These systems tend to be small, power limited, and require a new type of thruster.
Monopropellant Thruster: Busek’s Green Monopropellant Thrusters feature a patented monolithic catalyst that is efficient yet extremely robust. Available thruster sizes range from 0.1N to 22N class, with demonstrated vacuum-specific impulse greater than 230 sec. The default green monopropellant of choice is ASCENT propellant, which has a 10% higher specific impulse and 45% greater density than hydrazine, a highly toxic monopropellant.
Busek has conducted decades of research on Hall thrusters and plasma physics since its inception and built the first U.S. Hall thruster to fly in space
Some of their key accomplishments include:
• The first US Hall thruster in space
• The first microPPT thrusters
• The first flight-proven electrospray thrusters
• The first propellant-less Carbon Nano-tube Field Emission Cathode Neutralizer
• The world’s lowest noise thrust stand (noise level below 0.1µN/rt-Hz in the 1mHz-100mHz bandwidth)
Busek has over 33,000 square feet of engineering, laboratory, product assembly, and testing facility space. Their two locations are specifically designed and fully equipped for the development, testing, and assembly of sophisticated space hardware and subsystems.
