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Pulsed Plasma Propulsion for a Small Satellite: Mission COMPASS P3OINT

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Pulsed Plasma Propulsion for a Small Satellite: Mission COMPASS P3OINT Pulsed Plasma Propulsion for a Small Satellite: Mission 3 COMPASS P OINT∗ J.K. Ziemer†, E.A. Cubbin‡and E.Y. Choueiri§ Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory (EPPDyL) MAE Dept. Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08544 V. Oraevsky¶and V. Dokukink IZMIRAN, Moscow, Russia AIAA-96-3292∗∗ Abstract Operational modes include a combination of right and left nozzle pulse sequences for determining the per- Pre-launch characterization and preparation of a Lin- formance and impulse bit of the APPT module in coln Experimental Satellite (LES 8/9) ablative pulsed space. Documented pre-flight experiments include plasma thruster (APPT) module for the COMPASS a temporary hardware addition that simulates the 3 3 P OINT Mission are described. COMPASS P OINT plasma discharge necessary for the pre-flight atmo- is a joint project between the Electric Propulsion and spheric integration test at IZMIRAN. Also described Plasma Dynamics Lab (EPPDyL) of Princeton Uni- are the experimental measurements of the thrust effi- versity and the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, ciency, center of mass, and moments of inertia of the Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Rus- module. sian Academy of Science (IZMIRAN) to carry in- orbit investigations with an ablative pulsed plasma thruster onboard COMPASS, an IZMIRAN scientific 1 Introduction microsatellite to be launched in October, 1996. The unmodified LES 8/9 APPT module produces impulse Over the past four years there has been a resurgence bits of 285 µN-s at an Isp of 836 s using 25 W of of interest[1] in ablative pulsed plasma thrusters power on average. The APPT module will be used (APPT’s) due to a trend towards smaller satellites in to conduct in-orbit investigations of pulsed plasma the military, commercial and scientific sectors. Quite propulsion as well as to provide attitude control of often these small satellites are power-limited to below the satellite and a source of plasma for active space 300 W. To date, only APPT’s have the demonstrated experiments. Details of the power, command, and ability of providing the mass-savings advantages of telemetry signals required to operate the device on high specific impulse electric propulsion at and be- the COMPASS satellite are presented. Thermal con- low these power levels. trol and various operational modes are also outlined. Research and development efforts on APPT peaked in the mid-seventies but hopes for the availability of ∗Support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, grant number: F49620-95-1-0291 high power in space caused such efforts to all but †Graduate Student, Research Assistant. cease in the eighties. Recent studies have demon- ‡Graduate Student, Research Assistant. strated that even with off-the-shelf power storage and §Chief Investigator at EPPDyL. Assistant Professor, Applied power processing technologies, the APPT can offer Physics Group. Senior Member AIAA. substantial mass-savings for common stationkeeping ¶Director, IZMIRAN. kChief Investigator, IZMIRAN. missions[2]. nd ∗∗Presented at the 32 AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference The state-of-the-art of flight-ready APPT technol- 1 2 ZIEMER, CUBBIN, CHOUEIRI, ORAEVSKY & DOKUKIN: COMPASS P3OINT MISSION ogy of the mid-seventies is embodied in the Lin- 2 COMPASS and the COM- coln Experimental Satellites 8 and 9 Ablative Pulsed 3 Plasma Thruster (LES 8/9 APPT) modules[3] which PASS P OINT Mission were built but were never flown due to scheduling 2.1 Launch constraints. A great deal of research work went into the design and construction of these modules[4, 5] A 70 kg scientific microsatellite called COMPASS including previous spaceflights[6, 7]. Although the belonging to the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, LES 8/9 APPT modules did not go into space as Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the planned, a few Teflon APPTs have flown in space in Russian Academy of Science (IZMIRAN) will be the eighties[8]. launched later this year from a Russian Navy sub- As part of an AFOSR-sponsored program to ad- marine in the Barents sea using a 3-stage converted vance APPT technology to meet modern propulsion missile called Shtyl-2. The launch is scheduled for needs, Princeton University’s EPPDyL is carrying re- October 28, 1996 in connection with the celebration search on two complementary fronts: 1) Fundamen- of the 300th anniversary of the formation of the Rus- tal studies (theoretical and experimental) of APPT sian Navy. According to ref. [13], this will mark the ablation process, energy partitioning, scaling, circuit first time a converted military ballistic missile is used optimization and thrust efficiency, and 2) In-orbit in- to place a satellite in lower earth orbit (LEO). The vestigations of APPT performance. In the present satellite will be placed in a 400 km circular orbit with paper we discuss our efforts on the second front, par- an inclination of 78-79◦. The primary scientific goal ticularly the use of a LES 8/9 APPT module onboard of COMPASS is to conduct plasma studies related to a Russian scientific satellite called COMPASS to be earthquake precursors in the ionosphere. The satel- launched on October 28, 1996. lite, however, will also include a LES 8/9 APPT mod- The part of the COMPASS project that deals with ule supplied, conditioned and adapted to COMPASS the APPT is called COMPASS P3OINT for Pulsed by Princeton University’s EPPDyL. Plasma Propulsion in-Orbit Investigation and Navi- gation Test. In this paper we first describe the ob- 2.2 Scientific Goals of COMPASS jectives of the COMPASS P3OINT mission and gen- During its minimum lifetime of six months, COM- eral aspects of the COMPASS satellite. We then go PASS aims at the following scientific goals: into the details of the preparation and characteriza- tion of the APPT module. In particular, we define Studies of electromagnetic and plasma distur- the power, command, and telemetry signals necessary • bances in the ionosphere as precursors to earth- for the mission as well aspects of the required ther- quake, volcanic eruptions and other large-scale mal control for the thruster. The operational modes natural disasters. and pulsing sequences that will be used during the mission are also presented. Development of methods for the detection and • Before delivering the flight module to IZMIRAN monitoring of large-scale technological accidents for satellite integration in August of this year, three from space using microsatellites. instrumental steps have been accomplished. First, Investigation of the processes of electrodynamic temporary internal and external hardware modifica- • interaction between the atmosphere, ionosphere tions have been made to allow a simulated discharge and the Earth magnetosphere through passive at atmospheric pressure for a pre-flight satellite inte- and active space experiments. gration test. Second, the efficiency of the LES 8/9 APPT has been measured over 436 pulses yielding an average impulse bit of 285 µN-s within 5 µN-s, 2.3 General Objective of COMPASS 3 an efficiency of 6.8%, and a specific impulse of 836 s. P OINT These performance measurements were made using The part of the COMPASS project that deals with the interferometric proximeter system (IPS) as de- the APPT is called COMPASS P3OINT and has the scribed in ref [9, 10]. Third, all moments of inertia following objectives: have been found experimentally to within 1.5% us- ing a bifilar technique described here in detail as well Provide attitude adjustment and stabilization as in ref [11, 12]. All three of these experiments are • for COMPASS (pitch angle control, instrument outlined in this paper. orientation, drag compensation, etc. ) ZIEMER, CUBBIN, CHOUEIRI, ORAEVSKY & DOKUKIN: COMPASS P3OINT MISSION 3 Provide a source of high velocity plasma for iono- Plasma • Diagnostics APPT Aerodynamic spheric perturbation and active space experi- Stabilizers ments on COMPASS. Validation of APPT thrust and efficiency perfor- • mance baselines inferred from attitude changes caused by APPT firings. Equipment Thruster Validation of APPT operation baselines. Module Module • Investigation of on-orbit electromagnetic inter- • ference (EMI) from the APPT using the wave Figure 1: COMPASS Satellite in launch configura- diagnostics on COMPASS. tion. Provide on-orbit propulsion data to guide the • scientific part of EPPDyL’s AFOSR-sponsored Commands to COMPASS will be sent via the com- research on APPT’s. mand line starting at IZMIRAN through a reserved line from the city of Sochi. Macintosh computers at Provide hands-on astronautics and satellite in- IZMIRAN and Princeton linked through the Internet, • tegration education through the involvement of provide means for communication and digital data graduate and undergraduate students transfers. There are two modes of data collection: 1) Moni- 2.4 COMPASS Scientific Payload tor Mode and 2) Data Recording Mode into the on- board 32 MB memory. The data is transmitted via COMPASS has a suite of diagnostics intended for its the telemetry channel to the ground receiver stations scientific investigations. These instruments will be at IZMIRAN in the city of Troitsk in the Moscow operating during the APPT firings providing scien- region. Another telemetry link will be to the city of tific data about wave emission and particle energetics Sochi. The data transmission rate exceeds 1 Mbit/s during the COMPASS P3OINT mission. The instru- and the carrier frequency is 1.7 GHZ. ments include: High frequency (HF) wave system for measuring 2.6 The Structure of COMPASS • waves in the range of 0.1-15 MHz COMPASS consists of two main modules: an An ultralow frequency (ULF)/ extremely low fre- equipment module and a thruster module. Before • quency (ELF) wave system for measuring in the launch, the two modules are collapsed into one over- 0.1 Hz-23 kHz range. all structure that fits inside a conical canister with an elliptical bottom section. This configuration is neces- Plasma diagnostics package for measuring sitated by the limited space available in place of the • plasma parameters warhead of the Shtyl-2 converted missile.
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