This paper presents a numerical simulation of the air drag force that small spacecraft, specifically a CubeSat, is experimenting during its mission on space. According to air drag force equation, it depends mostly on the air density values and its current speed, other parameters are considered constant due to environment conditions. The natural way a spacecraft deorbits into the Earth is due to the actual air drag force and mostly all institutions such as space agency, universities and research centers build and design their spacecraft following the 25-years rule which states all spacecraft in altitude around 400 km to 500 km must deorbit into the Earth in a maximum time of 25 years. To prove and quantify the actual air drag force, we construct an educational software library that calculates how much drag force is acting on the spacecraft according to the air density values from MSIS-E90 Atmosphere Model. Results are present in this paper.
Drag-Quick Program Tool for Calculations of the Air Drag Force on a 1U-CubeSat
2018-10-01
7581538 byte
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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