Ion engines can provide sufficient cumulative delta-v for a cubesat to travel from Earth orbit and land on the Moon.
the verdict
REFUTED
the evidence says no
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
1 source for · 1 against
AS REPORTEDno primary record reached; this is what the reporting says
While ion engines can theoretically provide cumulative delta-v for transfers between Earth orbit and the Moon, technical discussions show they cannot provide a soft landing due to an insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio.
# What calculations should I do to go from LEO to the moon with an ionic motor?
Tags: the-moon, orbit, cubesat, engineering, ion-thruster
- Score: 1
- Views: 499
- Answers: 1
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: Valentino Zaffrani (1623 rep)
- Asked: 2020-02-17
- Site: space
## Question
my question is, what calculations should I do to be able to go from LEO to the lunar orbit?
If this were done, two of these thrusters would be used
https://www.cubesatshop.com/product/ifm-nano-thruster/,
I know that once being in the Earth's orbit it is not all thrust, given that in Some parts would be inefficient and we would only spend Xenon, gather a lot of information from the SMART-1 mission and they commented that only in a third of the orbit they activated the motors, then only orbited until returning and redoing that until reaching the lunar orbit.
I read these two previously published articles carefully:
Could a cubesat be self propelled to the moon from LEO?
and
Could a cubesat propel itself to Mars?
and the truth is that they have helped me a lot but there are still things that I don't understand and maybe someone can explain to me. Thanks in advance!
## Answers
### Answer by BlueCoder (s
# Land a cubesat on the moon with ion engine
Tags: orbital-mechanics, the-moon, landing, cubesat, low-thrust
- Score: 11
- Views: 2058
- Answers: 2
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: Valentino Zaffrani (1623 rep)
- Asked: 2020-11-03
- Edited: 2020-11-04
- Site: space
## Question
Say I have a 3U cubesat with a BIT-3 ion thruster, an iodine tank and landing legs. Can it land on the Moon with just an ion thruster?
## Answers
### Answer by SE - stop firing the good guys (score: 32 [ACCEPTED])
Not a soft landing.
A soft landing requires the spacecraft having a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than one (otherwise it just falls faster and faster).
Ion engines have a very low thrust to weight ratio, much smaller than one. On the moon, the surface acceleration is 1.625m/s², so the thruster must provide at least 1.625N of force for every kg of spacecraft. Ion engines are several kilograms, while providing less than 1N of thrust, so this is not possible.
Busek BIT-3:
Mass: 1.28kg without gimbal.
Thrust: up to 0.00125N
Thrust to weight ratio on the Moon: 0.0006 (best case, assuming the spacecraft is 100% engine by mass)
Just smashing into the surface of the moon at more than a km/s on the othe