Maneuver Planning for Demonstration of a Low-Thrust Electric Propulsion System

As the testing and implementation of CubeSat technologies on-orbit becomes more prolific, the need for high-efficiency, low-mass propulsion systems continues to grow. Ionic propulsion systems have emerged as a potential technology to fill the niche of CubeSat propulsion. BeaverCube, a student-built 3U CubeSat from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will host an ionic propulsion system demonstration in low Earth orbit. Slated to launch no earlier than October 2020, BeaverCube seeks to demonstrate the Accion Systems Inc. Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray propulsion system. This system utilizes an ionic liquidas propellant, giving BeaverCube the ability to make high-efficiency, low-thrust maneuvers. A successful system demonstration will be able to detect a translational maneuver using the NovAtel OEM-719 Global Positioning System receiver onboard BeaverCube. Detectability requires the altitude change of a maneuver to be at least 9 meters, which is 3 standard deviations above the expected GPS altitude error. The goal of this work is to determine the duration of translational maneuver that will result in the highest probability of detection while producing the smallest error in thrust calculation. From simulations performed in Systems Tool Kit, a 3.5 hour maneuver was determined to be optimal, resulting in an altitude change of 280.6 meters