Attitude and Orbit Control Strategy with 10N Thruster for ALE-3

Abstract

This paper presents a low earth orbit control sequence for a microsatellite using thruster control and its evaluation. The Space Robotics Laboratory (SRL) and ALE Co.,Ltd. are currently developing the ALE-3 with the mission of artificial generation of a meteor. Since the meteor ejection mission will be performed at an altitude of about 400 km or lower, ALE-3 will perform a descent from an altitude of 600 km using 10N thrusters. Due to the limited amount of propellant loaded onto the satellite, efficient thruster operation is important to achieve the target orbit. In this study, we propose a control sequence that achieves highly efficient orbit transfer by using other actuators for attitude control before and after thruster injection. Simulation results show that orbit control using the proposed method can change the satellite's velocity with high efficiency and the propellant mounted on the satellite is sufficient to achieve the target orbit transition.