Advances in the Control Propellant Minimization for the Next Generation Gravity Mission

Alberto Anselmi (), Stefano Cesare (), Sabrina Dionisio (), Giorgio Fasano () and Luca Massotti ()
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Alberto Anselmi: Thales Alenia Space
Stefano Cesare: Thales Alenia Space
Sabrina Dionisio: Thales Alenia Space
Giorgio Fasano: Thales Alenia Space
Luca Massotti: European Space Agency, ESTEC

A chapter in Modeling and Optimization in Space Engineering, 2023, pp 1-31 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This paper extends and completes a previous investigation performed by the same authors, dedicated to the problem of minimizing the control propellant in the Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM). The NGGM aims to measure the temporal variations of the Earth’s gravity field by laser tracking between pairs of satellites in low Earth orbit. In the reference scenario addressed in this paper, the satellites shall operate for at least 7 years at low ≈350 km circular altitude, and active disturbance control (drag control) is required; specifically, all six components of the force/torque acting on the satellite are actively controlled by a set of electric thrusters. The previous work solved the optimization problem for a nominal (no redundancy considered) set of 8 mini-thrusters (FCT, 1-mN class) plus 1 larger thruster (DCT, 10-mN class). In this work, a more realistic mission scenario is addressed taking into account real-world requirements and constraints including functional thruster redundancy to ensure single-failure tolerance and realistic thrust levels and thrust ranges compatible with existing ion thruster types. The results show feasibility with complete single-failure tolerance using 1 + 1 DCT and 8 + 2 FCTs.

Keywords: MAGIC (Mass Change and Geosciences International Constellation); NGGM (Next Generation Gravity Mission); GOCE (Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer); GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment); Gravimetry; Laser metrology; Low-Low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (LL-SST); Formation flying; Drag Free and Attitude Control System (DFACS); Electric propulsion; Propellant mass minimization; Thruster layout and dispatch optimization; End-to-End simulator (E2E); Mathematical programming; Global Optimization (GO) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-24812-2_1

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