AbstractThe growing competitiveness in the commercial space market has raised the interest in operating small spacecraft at very low altitudes. To make this feasible, the space industry has started developing propulsion options tailored specifically to these platforms. This paper presents a review of emerging micropropulsion technologies and evaluates their applicability to microsatellite missions in the altitude range 250–500km. The results of the proposed analysis are demonstrated on two different remote sensing applications.
HighlightsA review of propulsion options for very low Earth orbit microsatellites is presented.The applicability of these technologies is investigated through parametric studies.Two Earth observation case studies are detailed.
Propulsion options for very low Earth orbit microsatellites
Acta Astronautica ; 133 ; 444-454
2016-11-01
11 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch