ICARUS
The Horizon Europe project ICARUS has the goal of developing and flight-testing a fully European inflatable heat shield by 2028. This project is led by Elecnor-Deimos from Spain and has 10 other partners from Germany, Netherlands, Italy and France. In this project a demonstrator will be designed and built that will be flown on a Red Kite sounding rocket of the DLR. In the consortium, Solidflow/ HDES is responsible for the inflation system, which consists of one or more Cool Gas Generators, tubing, sensors and interfaces.
The baseline technology for the inflation system is the carbon dioxide generator, but the alternative of a hydrogen generator will also be investigated. Solidflow aims to develop a Carbon dioxide CGG of 250 normal liters, 25 time larger than the p
resent 20 normal MINOS generator. With this development, the product portfolio will be significantly expanded.The aim of the consortium is to commercially produce inflatable heatshield for different space applications after completion of the project.
Solidflow will be ready to equip them with series produced 250 nl Cool Gas Generators.
SWIFT
In 2024, Solidflow started the Spacecraft With Inflatable Flight Termination project (SWIFT) together with Spaceo, SpaceLocker, and GOMspace. The project develops an inflatable dragsail to deorbit satellites at end of life and will lead to an in-flight demonstration in 2028. After this recurrent production of systems will start.
The module attaches to the satellite and operates independently, with its own battery and flight computer. When the module detects that the satellite is non-operational, or receives a command to initiate deorbit, it activates. The sail deploys by inflating four booms arranged in a cross formation, with the dragsail mounted between them. The booms are rigidized using strain rigidization and inflated via a CGG system designed to deliver just enough gas to complete rigidization. The CGG system consists of two 3 Nl gas generators that produce the gas required to inflate the booms. The generators produce CO2 and the ignition is handled by the Solidflow developed igniter. The two generators connect to a shared distribution block, with gas routed to the booms via a custom manifold.
Luchtvaart In Transitie (LIT) – Aeronautics in Transition
EVE oxygen generator
development for the Dutch Ministry of Defence.
Military personnel who are wounded in the frontline must be treated as quickly as possible to increase their chances of survival. Oxygen is essential here. Due to the explosion hazard, pressurized oxygen bottles are dangerous for use in the front lines. For this reason, oxygen can only be administered behind the front. In addition, the Dutch MoD wants to reduce the logistics footprint of oxygen supplies as much as possible.
For the Dutch MoD it is important to ensure the maximum chances of survival for their personnel and that is why it came into co
ntact with Solidflow, which had a solution for this: the EVE Oxygen generator.
An Oxygen Cool Gas Generator produces pure oxygen, cannot leak, is not pressurised, requires no maintenance and has a long shelf life under difficult conditions and in harsh environments. Solidflow is now developing the EVE generator to TRL 6 in a two year project.
Two prototypes are being developed to demonstrate the technology and prepare for production of operational systems for Dutch military and our allies.
the EVE-one
MINOS
MInimal volume, NO pressure System, Cool Gas Generator pressurisation system for small satellites
Between November 2021 and mid 2023 the Solidflow sister company HDES developed a 20 normalliter Carbondioxide CCG specifically designed to pressurise propellant tanks.
The development was very successful and led to a fully developed and tested CGG. IN this project Solidflow/ HDES headed a team with Bradford Engineering and TNO as partners.The amount of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit is increasing. In order to manoeuvre these satellites in their orbits and constellations and to give them the possibility to de-orbit at the end of their lives an efficient propulsion system is required. At this moment most of these satellites use blow down mono-propellant systems where a substancial part of the tank is used to contain the pressurisation gas. This has a major impact on the size of the satellite.
Therefore a small and more efficient system will enable to make small satellites more efficient and smaller. It will also allow them to be launched with a minimum of pressure in the tank. This idea is called MINOS Minimal Volume, No Pressure System. In the project an Engineering Model and later a Qualification Model were developed and successfully tested.
The MINOS 20 normalliter CO2 generator is now offered commercially
.
The Innovative Technology Behind Our Products
In a Cool Gas Generator, a nearly pure gas is created by a self-sustained chemical reaction of a solid propellant and leaves the gas generator at ambient temperature. It is a new way of storing gas that requires no maintenance, has no pressure, no leakage, and has a very long lifetime.In a CGG, a porous solid charge of mild energetic material (called a CGG grain) is ignited by a small squib or an electrical glow plug.
The reaction front passes through the charge, and the required gas is formed in this reaction. The gas then goes through the not-yet-decomposed porous grain, where it is cooled to ambient temperature and leaves the Cool Gas Generator as cool gas.
See the figure on the left.This self-cooling mechanism does not work anymore for the last part of the charge; therefore, a multipurpose filter is used that cools the last part of the gas and filters out any volatiles created by the reaction.
The reaction in the grain is self-sustained, so once ignited, it will keep on going by itself. By changing the ingredients in the propellant, the chemical reactions can be altered, and different gases, such as CO2, oxygen, and hydrogen, can be produced.Seve
ral Cool Gas Generators have been classified outside the pyrotechnic class and can be transported easily and safely