Electric Thrusters Redundancy Configuration Strategy Study for All Electric Propulsion Platform Station-Keeping

Electric propulsion is used for all electric propulsion satellites to perform the orbit transfer,attitude control and station-keeping tasks. Generally electric propulsion subsystem contains 4 thrusters. But if one thruster fails in the beginning of satellite lifetime,other thrusters will undertake all the firing tasks. The firing time will be 2 to 3 times of thrusters without failure. Thus it may go beyond the allow ed lifetime of thruster. This paper puts forward two thruster redundancy configuration solutions with 6 thrusters to solve this problem. Two layout configurations and their corresponding station-keeping strategies are simulated and compared. The results show that the maximum firing time of both layout configurations can meet the lifetime limitation. This solution is a good reference for all electric propulsion satellites design.

GEO Satellite Thruster Configuration and Optimization

A thruster configuration and optimization method for GEO satellite is proposed in this paper.All thrusters are installed on the back panel of satellite,which is not only compatible with the design of satellite subdivision structure,but also able to provide a large installation room for the payloads and components carried by the satellite.Chemical thruster and electric thruster were selected because they have complementary advantages and can effectively reduce propellant consumption.The working mode and tasks of the thruster were analyzed in detail for thruster configuration,which was optimized in order to minimize propellant consumption.Lastly,a GEO satellite thruster was configured and optimized using this method,with results showing that the method is feasible and effective,and consequently has value for engineering applications.

On the heating mechanism of electron cyclotron resonance thruster immerged in a non-uniform magnetic field

To study the heating mechanism of electron cyclotron resonance thruster(ECRT)immersed in a non-uniform magnetic field,experiments and simulations are performed based on an electron cyclotron resonance plasma source at ASIPP.It is found that the first harmonic of electron cyclotron resonance is essential for plasma ignition at high magnetic field(0.0875 T),while the plasma can sustain without the first and second harmonics of electron cyclotron resonance at low magnetic field(till 0.0170 T).Evidence of radial hollow density profile indicates that upper hybrid resonance,which has strong edge heating effect,is the heating mechanism of low-field ECRT.The heating mode transition from electron cyclotron resonance to upper hybrid resonance is also revealed.Interestingly,the evolutions of electron temperature and electron density with input power experience a‘delayed’jump,which may be correlated with the different power levels required for cyclotron and ionization.Moreover,when the field strength decreased,the variation of electron density behaves in an opposite trend with that of electron temperature,implying a possible competition of power deposition between them.The present work is of great interest for understanding the plasma discharge in ECRT especially immersed in a non-uniform magnetic field,and designing efficient ECRT using low magnetic field for economic space applications.

The second fusion of laser and aerospace-an inspiration for high energy lasers

Since the first laser was invented,the pursuit of high-energy lasers(HELs)has always been enthusiastic.The first revolution of HELs was pushed by the fusion of laser and aerospace in the 1960s,with the chemical rocket engines giving fresh impetus to the birth of gas flow and chemical lasers,which finally turned megawatt lasers from dream into reality.Nowadays,the development of HELs has entered the age of electricity as well as the rocket engines.The properties of current electric rocket engines are highly consistent with HELs’goals,including electrical driving,effective heat dissipation,little medium consumption and extremely light weight and size,which inspired a second fusion of laser and aerospace and motivated the exploration for potential HELs.As an exploratory attempt,a new configuration of diode pumped metastable rare gas laser was demonstrated,with the gain generator resembling an electric rocket-engine for improved power scaling ability.