On the 21ste of February, the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the MINOS Cool Gas Generator was held. In the MINOS project a 20 normal liter Carbon dioxide Cool Gas generator is being developed and qualified for use in space propulsion systems. In this project, under a SBIR contract of the Netherlands Space Office (NSO), HDES leads a team of Bradford Engineering and TNO to complete this development in a very short time of 13 months.
During the CDR, the team presented the test results of the Engineering Model and also presented the Modified Qualification Model design modifications. The documentation to support the design was discussed and the progress in the test and verification process was checked.
The results were very positive and the Netherlands Space Office and review participants gave the go-ahead for the qualification phase of the project. In this phase, the Qualification Model will be constructed and tested to prove the Cool Gas generator is ready for space applications.
The project will continue in its fast track pace and qualification is expect to be reached in April with deliveries to operational users starting as early as May.