Analysis of the cyclogram of maintaining a low working orbit of a space-craft of the AIST-2 class using an electric jet engine

Abstract

A study was made of the time parameters of the cyclogram for maintaining the low working orbit of a small spacecraft of the AIST-2 class using an electric jet engine. The analysis is made for working orbits with a height in the range from four hundred to five hundred kilometers with a changing upper atmosphere of the Earth, depending on the level of solar activity. The calculations used the thrust of an electric jet engine equal to twenty millinewtons with a service life of not more than a thousand hours. The methodological and software were used: for calculating the level of aerodynamic drag depending on the level of solar activity; for modeling and analysis of the parameters of the orbital motion of the spacecraft under the action of corrective and aerodynamic forces. The results of the analysis showed that the electric jet engine allows maintaining the working orbit in the range of designated heights. If the average altitude of the orbit deviates by no more than three kilometers, correction can be carried out in less than a day. The time of one correction cycle can vary from four to four hundred and seventy-eight days, depending on the level of solar activity and the design and ballistic parameters of the spacecraft. The operating life of an electric jet engine equal to one thousand hours can maintain the working orbit of the spacecraft for more than seven years with low solar activity in the range of the studied heights.