MEMS Thrusters and Inertial Sensors for Space Applications

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• Prof. Herbert R. Shea, Microsystems for Space Technologies Laboratory Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
• Thursday 22 October 2009, 14:00-15:00
• Denis Gabor Seminar Room, 611.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact William T Pike.

MEMS offer great promise for increasing the functionality of spacecrafts while decreasing their mass, thus enabling new satellite architectures and allowing nanosatellites to match the performance of conventional spacecraft. Our lab at the EPFL in Switzerland develops micromachined thrusters and inertial sensors for spacecraft propulsion and navigation, as well as polymer-based microactuators and components for chip-scale atomic clocks for use on Earth and in space.

An overview of our lab’s activities will be given, with an emphasis on three topics: 1) arrays of microfabricated colloid thrusters emitting ions at 35 km/s. 2). MEMS inertial sensor directly measuring the gravity gradient in orbit, used as an Earth sensor requiring no optical access, 3) micro-actuators based on silicone membranes with compliant electrodes that generate vertical displacements greater than 50% of the device radius, with applications in tunable optics and cell manipulation.

This talk is part of the William T Pike's list series.

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