Session
Poster Session 4
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
Recently, active research and technological development have been conducted on various mission application in VLEO(Very Low Earth Orbit) using MicroSat. However, the limited payload accommodation capability of MicroSat poses significant challenges for high optical resolution commercial or national-level practical missions. In contrast, satellites of 2,000 kg in size have performed well in low-Earth orbit for the very high optical resolution missions required so far (e.g., 30 cm-level resolution optical satellites) in 450 km ~ 600 km orbit altitude, but in order to meet the continuously increasing resolution requirements in the future optical imagery market (e.g., 15 cm-level resolution), the optical payload must be made larger or their operating altitudes must be set to ultra-low-Earth orbit to achieve demanded performance.
However, in VLEO, a large amount of on-board fuel is required to compensate for the decrease in altitude due to dramatically increased aerodynamic drag, so satellite size should be increased to accommodate large size fuel tank in order to comply mission life of approximately 7 years or more, which is recently required in commercial mission. In another way to comply to meet mission life requirements is to have refueling in near end of depletion of propellant in orbit. Several research and flight demonstrations were conducted in refueling mission but most of them were for geo-synchronous spacecraft with add-on propulsion module to meet market need or small size fuel transfer in low earth orbit for technology demonstration. But it is required to transfer more or less 500 kg fuel to support 2,000 kg satellite in VLEO to extend mission life more than 7 years. If we could be supported with enough budget to build full scale spacecraft for mission vehicle and refueling vehicle then we will be able to demonstrate and validate technologies in need for commercial or government mission. And also If we are asked to build flight model spacecraft with TRL 6 or higher technologies and hardware to minimize mission risk then we need to make the on-orbit technologies demonstration plan to get approval from customer to begin flight model spacecraft development program.
In this paper, we propose a way to demonstrate various technologies using Microsat that required in refueling for 2,000 kg class spacecraft, such as system operation concepts, proximity operations, and connection devices for refueling. This paper aims to present a way to perform missions by launching a flight operation model directly without technology verification using expensive full scale satellites.
Document Type
Event
Included in
MicroSAT for Refueling Mission Demonstrator in VLEO
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Recently, active research and technological development have been conducted on various mission application in VLEO(Very Low Earth Orbit) using MicroSat. However, the limited payload accommodation capability of MicroSat poses significant challenges for high optical resolution commercial or national-level practical missions. In contrast, satellites of 2,000 kg in size have performed well in low-Earth orbit for the very high optical resolution missions required so far (e.g., 30 cm-level resolution optical satellites) in 450 km ~ 600 km orbit altitude, but in order to meet the continuously increasing resolution requirements in the future optical imagery market (e.g., 15 cm-level resolution), the optical payload must be made larger or their operating altitudes must be set to ultra-low-Earth orbit to achieve demanded performance.
However, in VLEO, a large amount of on-board fuel is required to compensate for the decrease in altitude due to dramatically increased aerodynamic drag, so satellite size should be increased to accommodate large size fuel tank in order to comply mission life of approximately 7 years or more, which is recently required in commercial mission. In another way to comply to meet mission life requirements is to have refueling in near end of depletion of propellant in orbit. Several research and flight demonstrations were conducted in refueling mission but most of them were for geo-synchronous spacecraft with add-on propulsion module to meet market need or small size fuel transfer in low earth orbit for technology demonstration. But it is required to transfer more or less 500 kg fuel to support 2,000 kg satellite in VLEO to extend mission life more than 7 years. If we could be supported with enough budget to build full scale spacecraft for mission vehicle and refueling vehicle then we will be able to demonstrate and validate technologies in need for commercial or government mission. And also If we are asked to build flight model spacecraft with TRL 6 or higher technologies and hardware to minimize mission risk then we need to make the on-orbit technologies demonstration plan to get approval from customer to begin flight model spacecraft development program.
In this paper, we propose a way to demonstrate various technologies using Microsat that required in refueling for 2,000 kg class spacecraft, such as system operation concepts, proximity operations, and connection devices for refueling. This paper aims to present a way to perform missions by launching a flight operation model directly without technology verification using expensive full scale satellites.
