This air intake collector is designed to harvest sufficient air particles as it skims the top of the atmosphere to fuel an “air-breathing” electric thruster. The aim is to help satellites to overcome atmospheric drag to operate on an ongoing basis in orbits from as low as 180 km to a maximum 250 km altitude.
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/tmb/2020/lettingasate.jpg)
Source:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-image-satellite.html