Design of the EO-1 pulsed plasma thruster attitude control experiment

Zakrzwski, Charles; Sanneman, Paul; Hunt, Teresa; Blackman, Kathie; Bauer, Frank

doi:10.2514/6.2001-3637

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In the past decades, numerous PPTs have successfully been operated for the purpose of technology demonstration, north-south station keeping, highprecision target pointing as well as drag compensation [4,5]. Their robust and simple design is a clear advantage in terms of safety and reliability while the pulsed operation allows for very §exible power management.…”

Section: Pulsed Plasma Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

Electric propulsion systems for small satellites: the low earth orbit mission perseus

Bock

Herdrich

Lau

et al. 2011

Progress in Propulsion Physics

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The Institute of Space Systems, Universit at Stuttgart, launched a ¤Small Satellite Program¥ in 2002. The ¦rst two of the four planed small satellites, Flying Laptop and PERSEUS, are both Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. The third mission Cermit is a reentry satellite and the last of the small satellites ¡ Lunar Mission BW1 ¡ is a mission to the Moon. For this purpose, di¨erent propulsion systems are mandatory. The propulsion system for Lunar Mission BW1 will consist of two different types of thruster systems: a cluster of pulsed magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters (SIMP-LEX) using solid polytetra §uoroethy-lene (PTFE) as propellant and a thermal arcjet thruster (TALOS) using gaseous ammonia as propellant. Both thruster systems are currently under development at IRS. They are planned to be tested on board the small satellite mission PERSEUS, one of the precursor missions of Lunar Mission BW1. The thruster systems have been investigated intensely in the past and, furthermore, optimization of the thrusters with respect to the mission requirements of Lunar Mission BW1 has been started. The test procedures for the technology demonstration on the PERSEUS satellite are under development at present.

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Section: Pulsed Plasma Thrustermentioning

confidence: 99%

Electric propulsion systems for small satellites: the low earth orbit mission perseus

Bock

Herdrich

Lau

et al. 2011

Progress in Propulsion Physics

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“…When more advance functions, such as star extraction, star recognition and attitude solution, are needed, an additional high performance star simulator will be required. In terms of the star simulator development, Hughes Aircraft Company 27 28 , McDonnell Douglas Aerospace 29 and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company 30 have developed some advanced star simulators with superior star image simulation and stability. However, difficulties still exist at present in developing full celestial sphere star simulators which can satisfy the requirements for spectral range, magnitude, update rate and position accuracy simultaneously.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An accuracy measurement method for star trackers based on direct astronomic observation

Sun

Xing

Wang

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Star tracker is one of the most promising optical attitude measurement devices and it is widely used in spacecraft for its high accuracy. However, how to realize and verify such an accuracy remains a crucial but unsolved issue until now. The authenticity of the accuracy measurement method of a star tracker will eventually determine the satellite performance. A new and robust accuracy measurement method for a star tracker based on the direct astronomical observation is proposed here. In comparison with the conventional method with simulated stars, this method utilizes real navigation stars as observation targets which makes the measurement results more authoritative and authentic. Transformations between different coordinate systems are conducted on the account of the precision movements of the Earth, and the error curves of directional vectors are obtained along the three axes. Based on error analysis and accuracy definitions, a three-axis accuracy evaluation criterion has been proposed in this paper, which could determine pointing and rolling accuracy of a star tracker directly. Experimental measurements confirm that this method is effective and convenient to implement. Such a measurement environment is close to the in-orbit conditions and it can satisfy the stringent requirement for high-accuracy star trackers.

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“…Advances in materials, electrical components, and circuit card technologies provided potential to significantly reduce thruster dry mass from prior flight thrusters. A flight experiment was designed to incorporate those advances in a protoflight thruster and demonstrate pitch axis control and momentum management on a small, low Earth orbit science spacecraft 14 . Results of this flight experiment have validated usage of PPT technology in spacecraft systems.…”

Section: A Programmatic Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%