Plasma Physicist Answers Satellite Questions | Tech Support Live at SWITCH

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you. Much needed.

I'm Mark Lim, CEO of Aliena.

I'm here to answer your questions on satellites.

This is satellite support and we're here, live from Switch.

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Can a satellite propulsion system run on water?

Most certainly.

Satellite propulsion systems can literally run

on any type of matter as a propellant.

There are two main considerations.

Essentially, it needs to have mass,

and number two, it needs to be pushed out

of the spacecraft at sufficient speed.

The higher the mass, the higher the speed,

the larger thrust you're gonna get.

Now, water is an interesting consideration for propelling,

mainly because it's inert, it's safe, and it's non-toxic.

And more importantly, it's abundant

and can be found on other celestial bodies.

Using water, we'll be able

to achieve multiple modes of propulsion.

For example, chemical propulsion,

which generates very high thrust

and low fuel efficiencies, as well as electric propulsion,

which is low in thrust and high-end fuel efficiency.

At Aliena, we have developed

a multi-stage ignition compact-qualified thruster,

which is not just power-efficient,

but fuel-efficient as well.

What makes Singapore the right place to design, test,

and launch satellite solutions?

Singapore is one of the best place in the world

to develop satellite technologies,

mainly because of the talent capital

that we have in Singapore.

It's the network and connections that we have,

not just with our institutes of higher learning,

as well as academic research centers,

but also with industry, both in the region itself

as well as globally.

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