Modelling Flexibility and Qualification Ability to Assess Electric Propulsion Architectures for Satellite Megaconstellations

Massimo Panarotto,Olivia Borgue,Ola Isaksson

doi:10.3390/aerospace7120176

Massimo Panarotto, Olivia Borgue + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace7120176

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Journal: Aerospace	Publication Date: Dec 11, 2020
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Chalmers University of Technology

Abstract

The higher satellite production rates expected in new megaconstellation scenarios involve radical changes in the way design trade-offs need to be considered by electric propulsion companies. In relative comparison, flexibility and qualification ability will have a higher impact in megaconstellations compared to traditional businesses. For these reasons, this paper proposes a methodology for assessing flexible propulsion architectures by taking into account variations in market behavior and qualification activities. Through the methodology, flexibility and qualification ability can be traded against traditional engineering attributes (such as functional performances) in a quantitative way. The use of the methodology is illustrated through an industrial case related to the study of xenon vs. krypton architectures for megaconstellation businesses. This paper provides insights on how to apply the methodology in other case studies, in order to enable engineering teams to present and communicate the impact of alternative architectural concepts to program managers and decision-makers.

Highlights

Manufacturers of electric propulsion (EP) systems for satellites have had a strong focus on increasing the performance and reliability of their products, with governmental programs as unique buyers
From the interactions with the industrial stakeholders in the space development programme, it was decided that the most interesting application in which to model flexibility and qualification ability against functional requirements was the development of low power and low-cost electric propulsion systems for low Earth orbit (LEO) megaconstellations
The novelty of the methodology is the ability to include behavior, beyond variations of ‘traditional’ attributes such as masses and performances. This variations in market behavior, beyond variations of ‘traditional’ attributes such as masses and paper has focused more on providing the input data regarding the variation of the market parameters, which are introduced (e.g., Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Manufacturers of electric propulsion (EP) systems for satellites have had a strong focus on increasing the performance and reliability of their products, with governmental programs as unique buyers. This led to a strong focus on increasing the functional requirements of an EP system—such as thrust (T) and specific impulse (Isp). This scenario is going to change in the few years. The emergence of more entrepreneurial actors is driving new business scenarios in the space industry—such as the development of megaconstellations for worldwide internet coverage [2,3]

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