Exotrail wins H2020 European Commission funding

EXOTRAIL WINS H2020 EUROPEAN COMMISSION FUNDING TO DEVELOP NEW ADVANCED CATHODES

‍

Exotrail, along with 4 other partners, has just been selected by the European Commission for a 1M€ grant to develop a new material to further improve the performances of a key element of our system: the cathode. This program is done under the H2020 program.

The NEMESIS project is a transversal project strategically aiming at developing electride-based cathode technology which is compatible with all kinds of electric propulsion (EP) systems requiring neutralization addressing the full span of required electron currents from 50 mA to 5 A.

The ceramic electride C12A7:e- has excellent materials properties for thermionic devices for Electric Propulsion (EP) applications such as hollow cathodes or thermionic emitters. Its properties are superior to those of conventional ceramics currently employed in EP neutralizer technology. It is anticipated that C12A7:e- neutralizer technology is a potential game changer widening the applicability of EP immensely by enabling new mission scenarios due to higher reliability, compatibility with alternative propellants, lower power consumption on satellite and less thermal load at low costs.

Exotrail will actively work on this project with the different partners, but also within ORACLE, our common laboratory with ICARE laboratory (CNRS). “This illustrates Exotrail’s strategy: being very efficient to bring innovations in space and to the market on one side, and on the other side continuously investing in long-term R&D activities with our ORACLE common laboratory, to remain at the forefront of innovation and performances.” said Paul Lascombes, Chief Scientist & Cofounder of Exotrail.

The total project funding of 976k€ is spread over 5 instituions: Exotrail, ATD (Spain, Coordinator), Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany), Universidas de Politecnica de Madrid (Spain) and FOTEC (Austria).

More information: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/225414/factsheet/en