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Autonomous Low-Earth-Orbit station-keeping with electric propulsion | Antonello Giannitrapani

Autonomous Low-Earth-Orbit station-keeping with electric propulsion

Abstract

This paper studies the application of an electric propulsion system for autonomous station-keeping of a remote sensing spacecraft flying at low altitude. The considered propulsion system exploits a Xenon propellant bus, which operates both a low power Hall effect thruster and a resistojet. The former is used for continuous in-track control, while the latter provides the impulsive thrusts necessary for cross-track maneuvers. The adopted navigation solution is based on an extended Kalman filter, employing gyro, star-tracker and GPS measurements. Lyapunov-based and proportional-derivative feedback laws are used for orbit and attitude control, respectively. The performance of the proposed electric propulsion system and guidance, navigation and control solution is evaluated on a low Earth orbit mission.

Publication
Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 34(6):1683-1693

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