New Satellite Engine Could Use Earth’s Atmosphere as Fuel To Stay in Orbit Indefinitely
Summary
SciTechDaily reports on a novel atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) concept that could let satellites remain in very low Earth orbit by using atmospheric gases as fuel. The article covers engineering challenges such as atomic oxygen corrosion, intake design variants, a radio-frequency helicon plasma thruster, and lab results suggesting potential indefinite operation at 190–250 km with sub-1.6 kW of power, while noting mission viability remains unproven and referencing arXiv:2607.02635.