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Accueil > Actualités > The 2019 CNRS Innovation Medal awarded to Ane Aanesland, CNRS researcher at LPP
The 2019 CNRS Innovation Medal awarded to Ane Aanesland, CNRS researcher at LPP
- Ane Aanesland
- © CNRS Photothèque/Frédérique Plas
Ane Aanesland, a new step towards the miniaturisation of satellites
Trained at the University of Tromsø (Norway) and recruited at the Laboratory of Plasma Physics (CNRS/Ecole polytechnique/Observatoire de Paris/Université Paris-Sud/Sorbonne Université), Ane Aanesland, a CNRS researcher, is currently President and CEO of ThrustMe, a startup specialising in the propulsion of miniaturised satellites that she founded in 2017, with her colleague Dmytro Rafalskyi. Together they developed two major innovations in order to reduce the size of the propulsion units used by satellites to maintain the correct orbit. The first involves the choice and use of propellant, a generic term for any matter that provides energy for space propulsion. By imagining new ways of storing, processing, and accelerating iodine, they were notably able to show that an inexpensive propellant could, in solid form, replace xenon, a widely used gas for plasma propulsion systems. The second area of innovation is the creation of a unique technology that can accelerate both positive ions and electrons, instead of having a different electrode to emit each type of particle. Their goal is to make the space industry more sustainable. Facing a ten-fold increase in the number of satellites launched, it has indeed become essential today to better control them, in an effort to avoid collisions and improve their lifespan.
Read more on the CNRS press release and CNRS le Journal.
