DOCKS Propagator: An Open-source Adaptive Time-step Trajectory Propagator for CubeSat Missions

Jain, Rashika; Sharma, Harshul; Segret, Boris

doi:10.1109/aero53065.2022.9843529

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…The celestial bodies can follow pre-programmed orbits, which should be replaced with a position input from an orbit propagator. For example, DOCKS includes an open-source propagator [62]. The rotation of celestial bodies can also be extracted from DOCKS.…”

Section: Real-time 3d (Rt3d)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept

Slavinskis,

Palos,

Dalbins

et al. 2024

Aerospace

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The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple centrifugally deployed hair-thin tethers, around which an electrostatic sheath is created. Electron emitters are required to compensate for the electron current gathered by the tether. The electric sail can also be utilised in low Earth orbit, or LEO, when passing through the ionosphere, where it serves as a plasma brake for deorbiting—several missions have been dedicated to LEO demonstration. In this article, we propose the ESTCube-LuNa mission concept and the preliminary cubesat design to be launched into the Moon’s orbit, where the solar wind is uninterrupted, except for the lunar wake and when the Moon is in the Earth’s magnetosphere. This article introduces E-sail demonstration experiments and the preliminary payload design, along with E-sail thrust validation and environment characterisation methods, a cis-lunar cubesat platform solution and an early concept of operations. The proposed lunar nanospacecraft concept is designed without a deep space network, typically used for lunar and deep space operations. Instead, radio telescopes are being repurposed for communications and radio frequency ranging, and celestial optical navigation is developed for on-board orbit determination.

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Section: Real-time 3d (Rt3d)mentioning

confidence: 99%