The ion thruster is expanding the application areas due to the very high specific impulse compared to the chemical thruster, and is utilized for the propulsion system of north-south station keeping of geostationary satellites. Ion thrusters are made to be of low thrust and small size because of their heavy weight. Therefore, ion thrusters of the geostationary satellite should be fired once on ascending node every day using battery power. In this paper, new ion thruster operating policies for geostationary satellite are proposed during the eclipse season. One method fires the ion thruster by using the remaining battery power right after the eclipse time. Another method considers the full operation of ion thruster during the eclipse season assuming that the battery can be fully recharged between the eclipse time and the station keeping time. The former method reduces the orbit inclination by 30% during the eclipse season, and the latter method, when fast recharging is possible between the eclipse time and the station keeping time, can keep the orbit inclination nearly zero.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Operational Analysis of Ion Thruster for Geostationary Satellite Considering Eclipse


    Additional title:

    J of Astronaut Sci


    Contributors:
    Han, Ki Cheun (author) / Kim, Youdan (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2003-03-01


    Size :

    14 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English