A micro PPT for Cubesat application: Design and preliminary experimental results

Coletti, Michele; Guarducci, F.; Gabriel, Stephen

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2011.03.008

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The QM configuration allows the thruster and electronic board design not to be limited by the presence of the PC/104 connector that was included in the first PPTCUP-BB model [4]. Moreover, the external box provides shielding from the radiated noise generated by the thruster and assures that no arcing can occur between the thruster and the rest of the satellite.…”

Section: Pptcup-qm System Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aim of the thruster was to increase the lifetime of a 3U Cubesat and consequently its economical attractiveness [4] since, at the moment, Cubesats are limited by their lack of orbit control and thus their lifetime is determined by the natural, drag-induced, de-orbiting. The capabilities of a single PPTCUP unit used to perform drag compensation on board of a Cubesat are summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Results of the qualification test campaign of a Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Cubesat Propulsion (PPTCUP)

2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cite this article as: S. Ciaralli, M. Coletti and S.B. Gabriel, Results of the qualification test campaign of a Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Cubesat Propulsion (PPTCUP), Acta Astronautica, http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.actaastro.2015.08.016 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. II. IntroductionAblative Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) have been studied and developed since the 60s and they are the first example of electric propulsion successfully employed in space as both the Zond-2 (USSR) and LES-6 (USA) satellites used a propulsion system based on the PPT technology [1]. From then on, PPTs have been designed focusing not only on high or very high energy (up to 80 kJ) devices, but also on low-energy (< 10 J) thrusters ([2] and [3]), thanks to their high scalability in terms of geometry, power input and performance and to their relative low cost. Therefore, low-energy PPTs could be successfully used for the orbital and attitude control of pico, nano and micro satellites. Table 1. It has to be 3 noticed that PPTCUP could also be used to perform small orbit changes and to maintain satellites in formations enabling Cubesats to perform complex formation flying missions. The first PPTCUP model delivered a satisfactory performance but could not provide the requested lifetime.Subsequent to this study, an engineering model (PPTCUP-EM) was designed to optimize performance and achieve the required lifetime. PPTCUP-EM successfully passed a lifetime test campaign and the results showed a total impulse capability of 42.9 ± 3.9 Ns delivered in about 1,125,000 shots [5].Starting from the PPTCUP-EM design, a PPTCUP qualification model (PPTCUP-QM) has been designed and manufactured as part of an ESA ITI-C funded activity. Since the scope of this activity is to design a potential flightqualified product, it has been decided to produce a "stand-alone" module that can be bolted on the Cubesat structure.The module can be stacked at the top/bottom of a Cubesat or in the middle of it using a standard payload adapter.Such an approach is becoming popular among Cubesat manufacturers because it allows the production of subsystems that are isolated from the main Cubesat.An extended qualification test campaign, including electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) characterization, thermal cycling, and mechanical tests, has been performed. In this paper the PPTCUP-QM design, the experimental apparatus and the test results are presented. 4 III. PPTCUP-QM system designIn this section the PPTCUP-QM system design is presented. The PPTCUP-QM module consists of three main parts: the discharge chamber, which is an abl...

show abstract

Section: Pptcup-qm System Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Results of the qualification test campaign of a Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Cubesat Propulsion (PPTCUP)

2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The PPT electrodes have been manufactured using a copper tungsten alloy; they will have a spacing of 2 cm and a width of 1 cm resulting in a h/w ratio identical to the one used in PPTCUP [12]. The electrodes are about 2-cm long and, in an attempt to improve performances, they are tongue-shaped and flared at 20° [13].…”

Section: Pulsed Plasma Thruster Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

PPT Development for Nanosatellite Applications: Experimental Results

Coletti

Ciaralli

Gabriel

2015

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the design and performances of a pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) for nanosatellite applications will be presented. The breadboard model PPT presented in this paper will be a part of six PPTs propulsion system designed to provide attitude and translational control for a 20-kg nanosatellite for a total delta-V of 40 m/s. The thruster performances have been characterized in terms of electrical parameters, mass bit, impulse bit, and specific impulse. The thruster was found to be compliant with the mission requirement. Moreover, preliminary electromagnetic noise interference measurements have been performed. The spark plug discharge was found to be the main source of noise as already found by previous authors. From the collected data, it can be inferred that the noise is mostly radiated.

show abstract

“…The leader and follower spacecraft have identical physical parameters: the total mass of each is 3 kg, the bus size is 30 × 10 × 10 cm 3 , and the cross-sectional area is 10 × 10 cm 2 . The electric propulsion system considered in this work is a set of pulsed plasma thrusters (PPT) specifically designed for application to cubesats, as described in [35]. Table 1 gives the characteristics of the PPT model.…”

Section: Reference Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explicit Model Predictive Control Approach for Low-Thrust Spacecraft Proximity Operations

Leomanni

Rogers

Gabriel

2014

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The key role of autonomous systems in future space missions has made model predictive control a very attractive guidance and control technique. However, the capability of low-power spacecraft processors to handle the real-time computational load of this technique still needs to be fully established, especially for complex control problems. This paper introduces a method to improve the computational efficiency of model predictive control when applied to the problem of autonomous rendezvous and proximity maneuvering using low-thrust propulsion. To ensure safe trajectories in this scenario, a long control horizon is required and the control problem must be solved at a relatively fast sampling rate. The proposed design addresses such requirements by parameterizing the thrust profile with a set of Laguerre functions. In this setting, the number of control variables can be made significantly smaller than the length of the control horizon, as opposed to standard design methods. By exploiting this property, in combination with multiparametric programming techniques, an explicit control law is derived that is suitable for real-time implementation on simple hardware. The performance of this approach is demonstrated on a small spacecraft mission and compared with that of other control techniques.

show abstract

A micro PPT for Cubesat application: Design and preliminary experimental results

Cited by 45 publications

References 11 publications

Results of the qualification test campaign of a Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Cubesat Propulsion (PPTCUP)

Results of the qualification test campaign of a Pulsed Plasma Thruster for Cubesat Propulsion (PPTCUP)

PPT Development for Nanosatellite Applications: Experimental Results

Explicit Model Predictive Control Approach for Low-Thrust Spacecraft Proximity Operations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About