Context:
After a successful launch of the GEN1 satellites of the constellation, mission analysis or even propulsion system engineers need to perform specific low-thrust maneuvering for their satellites based on their recently acquired electrical propulsion system. They need to understand the optimal directions, durations, and positions of the burns to reach specific orbital targets. Access to this data is essential for continuing the design of the platform and other subsystems, as it impacts other CONOPS (payload usage, ground station contact), plays a key role in power budgets, and is crucial for nominally sizing the ADCS.
Problem statement:
- The mission analysis/Flight dynamics team could get away in the past with internally developed tools as V1 of the constellation could be modelled with propagation and with simple CONOPS using the payload or the antenna, so not real maneuver capabilities in the past and no need for external mission analysis software.
- At this level, however low thrust maneuvering cannot be easily be simulated as burns duration can last for several minutes even hours, the orbits are constantly being changed during thruster activation. Doing this internally is ruled out as the algorihitms that would be developed, would need to be validated and this would take too much time on an already aggressive timeiline to have next design finished.
- Today's maneuvering tools have a lot of legacy but they cannot easily simulate low thrust maneuvers as users need to manually set up & optimize burn duration & position in order to fullfill the desired orbital changes, which can be challenging or just impossible.
- This leads to a higher entry point (both in terms of usability & price) for many people in the company to benefit from them.
How spacestudio adresses these challenges:
- Spacestudio-satellite orbital mechanics core is based on a well stablished astrodynamics library called orekit, with tons of legacy in spacemission (link to orekit).
- Additional layer on top of it, to facilitate low thrust maneuvering simulations with an easy to use user interface. Maneuvers are predefined and optimized to reach targets while taking into account specific orbital constraints.
How it works:
- High level analyticial computation or high fidelity orbital propagation to account for different levels of detail in
- Different maneuver & maneuver strategy options to run different bach of caclulations outputing propulsion budgets as well propulsion ephemeris.
- Comparison different perturbations models.
Conclusion & Benefits:
The mission analysis can now safely iterate on the maneuvering CONOPs of the satellite and output the necessary data in order to continue designing the platform and other related subsystems.
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