The increasing capabilities of the CubeSat platform have led to growing interest in performing more complex commercial and science missions with these miniature spacecraft. In particular, electric propulsion provides unprecedented mission Δ V and enables ambitious but low-cost Earth missions as well as lunar, asteroid, and interplanetary exploration. As a case study, a 6 U (where U represents a 10 × 10 × 10    cm “unit”) CubeSat using the Miniature Xenon Ion Thruster was designed for a notional 3000    m / s Δ V mission with a 2 kg, 1.6 U payload, resulting in a spacecraft wet mass of 11.9 kg and a burn duration of 15 months. This spacecraft is capable of up to 5.8    km / s Δ V for a 0.5 U payload, as well as 2.1    km / s for a 2 U payload. Parametric analyses with generalized electric thruster properties show that mission performance is sensitive to thruster I s p and total efficiency η T , with a 10% increase in efficiency resulting in a 16% decrease in burn time. This decrease in burn time is also possible by decreasing I s p , but it incurs mass and payload volume penalties. Parametric studies of neutralizer cathode properties show that neutralizer cathode selection is critical, and that such cathodes should be designed to require low power, low to zero flow rate, and long life for high- Δ V missions.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Parametric Analysis of High-Delta-V CubeSat Missions with a Miniature Ion Thruster


    Beteiligte:
    Samples, Stephen (Autor:in) / Wirz, Richard (Autor:in)

    Erschienen in:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2021-01-29


    Format / Umfang :

    10 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch



    CubeSat Lunar Mission Using a Miniature Ion Thruster

    Conversano, Ryan / Wirz, Richard | AIAA | 2011


    Electrospray Thruster for CubeSat

    Ober, Scott / Branam, Richard / Huffman, Richard et al. | AIAA | 2011


    ELECTROSPRAY THRUSTER FOR CUBESAT

    Ober, S. / Branam, R. / Huffman, R. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011


    Cubesat Missions and JPL

    Freeman, Tony | NTRS | 2019


    CubeSat evolution: Analyzing CubeSat capabilities for conducting science missions

    Poghosyan, Armen / Golkar, Alessandro | Elsevier | 2016