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RITA Ion Thruster

Ion Propulsion
How it Works
Advantages
Applications
Heritage
Thruster RIT-10
Thruster RIT-XT
Thruster RIT-22
Xenon Regulator
Eureca
Artemis

Radiofrequency Ion Thruster, Model RIT-10.

High performance space qualified ion thrusters for commercial, scientific, deep space and interplanetary missions.

The space qualified RITA-10 Radio frequency ion propulsion system has an operating life in excess of 20,000 hours and a nominal specific impulse of 3058 seconds.

RITA-10 is a complete ion propulsion system that enables:

		85% less propellant mass than chemical bipropellant thrusters.
		50% less propellant mass than competing ion propulsion systems.

RIT-10 Radio frequency ion thruster.

RIT-10

Advantages:
RITA-10 performance provides the following large scale advantages:

More payload, or
Reduced launch cost, or
Longer mission life, or
Combinations of the above.

The magnitude of propellant saving is shown in the example below:

RITA Propellant Saving

Example: 4100 kg spacecraft, GEO, 15 year life.
Propellant consumption for N/S station keeping.

Applications:
RITA is especially suitable for:

		Stationkeeping.
		Attitude Control.
		Orbit transfer between LEO, MEO and GEO.
		Deep space trajectories and interplanetary missions.

Radio frequency Ion Thruster: Model RIT 10

Characteristic	RIT-10	RIT-10 plume
Propellant:	Xenon
Ionisation principle:	rf-discharge (v=0.7 - 1 MHz)
Discharge chamber diameter: Beam Diameter:	10 cm 9 cm
Beam voltage (nom):	Volts
Thrust level - nominal: - demonstrated:	15 mN 0.3 to 41 mN
Specific impulse - nominal: - demonstrated:	3300 sec. 2500 to 3700 sec.
Beam voltage:	1000 to 1500 Volts
Design Life	> 20,000 hours
Overall length:	16 cm
Outer Diameter:	16 cm
Mass:	1.8 kg
Features: Adjustable thrust from 15% to 135%. Long life graphite acceleration electrode. No electron emitter in discharge chamber. Operational life more than 20,000 hours demonstrated. Heritage: European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA): 1992. Advanced Relay Technology Mission (ARTEMIS): 2002.

Heritage: RITA- 10 Radio Frequency Ion Propulsion System

RITA-10 Eureca RITA 10 was first verified in space aboard the European Retrievable Carrier ( Eureca), launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis in July 1992. One year later, Eureca was returned to Earth by the Space Shuttle Endeavour in July 1993. Beam diameter: 87 mm. Thrust level: 5 mN - 10 mN 240 hours operation in space.		RITA-10 Eureca enlarge
Flawless operation. Performance in agreement with ground test results and predictions. Verification of no EMC interference between satellite, payload or electronics

RITA-10 Artemis

RITA was used on the Advanced Relay Technology Mission satellite (Artemis) as an experiment for controlling perpendicular drift to the orbital plane and launched aboard Ariane 5 on 12th July 2001.

Due to an upper stage malfunction, Artemis was injected into a low elliptical orbit having an apogee of just 17,487 km, instead of the targeted geostaionary transfer orbit of 35,853 km.

RITA-10 Artemis
enlarge

Together with onboard chemical propulsion, RITA-10 was reconfigured and successfully raised Artemis into its operational Geostationary orbit.

During the Artemis rescue mission, the RITA-10 system performed flawlessly for 7,500 hours with 6,427 hours of operation on a single thruster, equivalent to 7 years nominal mission operation and using just 14.2 kg of propellant.

Artemis reached GEO orbit in January 2003, after 11 months of RITA-10 operation.

Based on the success of RITA-10, further ion thruster evolution and technological advances have been made to achieve the advanced RIT-XT and RITA-22, yielding even greater performance.

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