Designing Low-Thrust Trajectories for a SmallSat Mission to Sun–Earth L5

Abstract

A small satellite deployed to Sun–Earth (SE) could serve as a low-cost platform to observe solar phenomena. However, the small satellite form factor introduces significant challenges into the trajectory design process via limited thrusting capabilities, power and operational constraints, and fixed deployment conditions. To address these challenges, a strategy employing dynamical systems theory is used to design a trajectory for a low-thrust-enabled small satellite to reach the SE region. This procedure is demonstrated for a small satellite that launches as a secondary payload with a larger spacecraft that is destined for an SE halo orbit. Low-thrust trajectories, delivering the spacecraft from a deployment condition in the Earth vicinity to an science orbit, are produced for both an 180 kg SmallSat and a 6U CubeSat. These solutions demonstrate the value of a dynamical systems approach to trajectory design, while also supporting the potential for small satellite missions to perform targeted heliophysics-based scientific observations well beyond low Earth orbit.