Development of a parabolic mirror using advanced materials used for an environment friendly propulsion system

Abstract

LEO satellites (low earth orbit) have a short operational life in space, on average up to 6 years. This is due to the limited quantity of propellant which is used to correct the attitude of the satellite. When the propellant runs out, the attitude can’t be adjusted/corrected anymore, so that the satellite drops from space and disintegrates in the earth’s atmosphere. To extend the operational life of the LEO satellite, a propulsion system was developed by COMOTI Research & Development Institute. The system consists of the following main components: the parabolic mirror, a cold N2 tank, a propellant tank, valve and nozzle. The light from the sun is reflected by the parabolic mirror onto the propellant tank, which is fed with cold N2 gas from the N2 tank. The propellant tank is mounted in the focal axis of the mirror. The N2 inside the propellant tank heats up, and when the desired pressure is reached, the valve opens and lets the N2 hot gas at 20 bar pressure exit through the nozzle. The reaction force obtained through this mode changes the attitude of the satellite. The advantage of this system is that it extends the life of the LEO satellites by 30% over the initial lifetime of 6 years, because it uses a hot gas propulsion system which means that less gas is used to obtain the same force as the conventional cold gas propulsion system.In this paper, the development of the parabolic mirror will be described, the mirror being a critical component in the new advanced LEO satellite propulsion system.