A Review of High Thrust, High Delta-V Options for Microsatellite Missions

Scharfe, David B.; Ketsdever, Andrew D.

doi:10.2514/6.2009-4824

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Recently there has been a significant interest in the development of compact satellite platforms with onboard propulsion [1][2][3][4]. Prospective applications of micro-, nano-, and pico-sized platforms (0.1-100 kg), such as satellite constellations [5], would benefit from robust, neutralizer-free electric propulsion (EP) sources [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal plasma heating mechanisms in a radio frequency electrothermal microthruster

Doyle

Gibson

Flatt

et al. 2018

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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Low power micro-propulsion sources are currently being developed for a variety of space missions. Electrothermal plasma thrusters are of specific interest as they enable spatial control of the power deposition to the propellant gas. Understanding the mechanisms whereby electrical power is coupled to the propellant will allow for optimisation of the heating and fuel efficiencies of electrothermal sources. Previous studies of radio-frequency (rf) plasmas have shown a dependence of the gas and electron heating mechanisms on the local collisionality. This is of particular importance to thrusters due to the large pressure gradients that exist between the inlet and outlet when expanding into vacuum. In this work, phase-resolved optical emission spectroscopy and numerical simulations were employed to study plasma heating in an asymmetric rf (13.56 MHz) electrothermal microthruster operating in argon between 186 -226 Pa (1.4 -1.7 Torr) plenum pressure, and between 130 -450 V (0.2 -5 W). Three distinct peaks in the phase-resolved Ar(2p 1 ) electron impact excitation rate were observed, arising from: sheath collapse heating, sheath expansion heating and heating via secondary electron collisions. These experimental findings were corroborated with the results of 2D fluid/Monte-Carlo simulations performed using the Hybrid Plasma Equipment Model (HPEM). The influence of each mechanism with respect to position within the plasma source during 1 an α-γ mode transition, where plasma heating is driven via bulk and sheath heating, respectively, was investigated. Sheath dynamics were found to dictate the electron heating at the inlet and outlet, as distinct from the centre of the thruster where interactions of secondary electrons were found to be the dominant electron heating mechanism. Optimisation of the heating mechanisms that contribute to the effective exhaust temperature will directly benefit electrothermal thrusters used on miniaturized satellite platforms.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal plasma heating mechanisms in a radio frequency electrothermal microthruster

Doyle

Gibson

Flatt

et al. 2018

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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“…Finally, electromagnetic propulsion boasts the mature Hall-effect thruster [16] and its variants [17][18][19], as well as newer technologies like magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters [20,21] and ablative pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs) [22]. For more information, a comprehensive review of electric propulsion is available in Charles [23] and Mazouffre [24], while Micci and Ketsdever [25] and Scharfe and Ketsdever [26] compiles a review of both classes of propulsion technologies with a specific focus on micropropulsion for microspacecraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comprehensive Cold Gas Performance Study of the Pocket Rocket Radiofrequency Electrothermal Microthruster

Charles

Boswell

2017

Front. Phys.

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This paper presents computational fluid dynamics simulations of the cold gas operation of Pocket Rocket and Mini Pocket Rocket radiofrequency electrothermal microthrusters, replicating experiments performed in both sub-Torr and vacuum environments. This work takes advantage of flow velocity choking to circumvent the invalidity of modeling vacuum regions within a CFD simulation, while still preserving the accuracy of the desired results in the internal regions of the microthrusters. Simulated results of the plenum stagnation pressure is in precise agreement with experimental measurements when slip boundary conditions with the correct tangential momentum accommodation coefficients for each gas are used. Thrust and specific impulse is calculated by integrating the flow profiles at the exit of the microthrusters, and are in good agreement with experimental pendulum thrust balance measurements and theoretical expectations. For low thrust conditions where experimental instruments are not sufficiently sensitive, these cold gas simulations provide additional data points against which experimental results can be verified and extrapolated. The cold gas simulations presented in this paper will be used as a benchmark to compare with future plasma simulations of the Pocket Rocket microthruster.

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“…This thrusting performance is well within the capability of microsatellite and nanosatellite propulsion technologies such as miniaturised cold-gas, monopropellant, and bipropellant thrusters [22,46]. For a 3U CubeSat, a propulsion system such as this can be contained within a 1U section.…”

Section: Halo Constellation Deploymentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Launch and deployment of distributed small satellite systems

2015

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a b s t r a c tThe rise in launch and use of small satellites in the past decade, a result of improved functionality through technology miniaturisation and alternative design philosophies, has spawned interest in the development of distributed systems or constellations of small satellites. However, whilst a variety of missions based on constellations of small satellites have been proposed, issues relating to the launch and deployment of these distributed systems mean that few have actually been realised. A number of strategies have been proposed which enable multiple small satellites comprising a constellation to be launched together and efficiently separated on-orbit, thus reducing the total cost of launch. In this paper, two such strategies which have the potential to significantly increase the viability of small satellite constellations in Earth orbit are investigated. Deployment using natural Earth perturbations to indirectly achieve plane separations is analysed using a developed method and compared to deployment utilising the Earth-Moon Lagrange point L 1 as a staging area prior to return to LEO. The analysis of three example missions indicates that these two strategies can facilitate the successful establishment of small satellite constellations in Earth orbit whilst also reducing propulsive requirements, system complexity, and/or cost. The study also found that the method of nodal precession is sensitive to the effects of orbital decay due to drag and can result in long deployment times, and the use of Lunar L 1 is more suitable for constellation configurations where several satellites are present in each orbital plane.

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A Review of High Thrust, High Delta-V Options for Microsatellite Missions

Cited by 18 publications

References 41 publications

Spatio-temporal plasma heating mechanisms in a radio frequency electrothermal microthruster

Spatio-temporal plasma heating mechanisms in a radio frequency electrothermal microthruster

A Comprehensive Cold Gas Performance Study of the Pocket Rocket Radiofrequency Electrothermal Microthruster

Launch and deployment of distributed small satellite systems

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