Oliver Jia-Richards
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The objective of this project is to investigate the use of electrospray thrusters for guidance and control of microsatellites such as CubeSats. A propulsion system can be created with electrospray thrusters that can provide both primary propulsion and attitude control for a CubeSat in less than 200cc of volume and 100g of mass. With such a system, CubeSats will have the capability for high precision (sub-arcsecond) pointing control and independent low thrust manoeuvres for rendezvous or missions to the Moon with volume for scientific payload. The research done as part of this project can also be extended to applications outside of the CubeSat form factor such as high precision point for the next generation of space telescopes.
Two specific applications of electrospray thrusters are considered in the proposal: low-thrust trajectories to lunar orbit and high precision pointing. Both applications extend on previous work done in the Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The proposed solution for low-thrust trajectories is to match geometries of an orbit integrated forwards in time from Earth and an orbit integrated backwards in time from the Moon. High precision pointing will be investigated through improving a magnetically levitating balance to allow for more accurate state estimation and therefore more accurate attitude control.
Completion of this work will provide impact not only for in-space propulsion technology but also for low-cost scientific research and technology development through providing a system that significantly increase the capabilities of the CubeSat form factor.