Iodine Small Satellite Propulsion Demonstration - iSAT

NASA’s Iodine Satellite (iSAT) is a small satellite demonstration mission designed and built at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC). Previously expected to launch late 2nd quarter of fiscal year ’18, iSAT’s flight effort has temporarily stood-down as of May 2017 to allow for the propulsion system to mature. Once launched, iSAT will demonstrate and characterize the efficiency of BUSEK’s 200 Watt Hall effect thruster utilizing iodine as a propellant in low Earth orbit. This paper covers iSAT’s one year mission; iSAT’s design solution and hardware to date; reviews the obstacles and benefits of utilizing iodine as a propellant; how iodine deposition will be characterized on orbit; and details, from a systems engineering and mission operations perspective, the process utilized to integrate commercial off the shelf components, custom NASA designed components, and third party custom designed components, with in-house designed flight software and MSFC’s pre-existing Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) ground support system software. This paper also briefly reviews the implications of utilizing iodine propulsion systems for national security and NASA discovery class missions