Electric Propulsion Electronics Activities in Europe

摘要

For European space missions the importance of electric propulsion is strongly growing and has recently experienced a real burst in the telecom market. The initial drivers of this development were programs of the European Space Agency and projects of the European national space agencies. In addition, electric propulsion is now on the priority list of European commercial satellite manufacturers. Actual programs target orbit raising and station keeping with full electric propulsion for telecom satellites. European space industry, represented by individual companies, has developed specific and generic solutions for the electronics dedicated to powering and controlling electric propulsion systems. The European Space Agency and the European Union providing support for enabling technology related to Power Processing Units (PPUs) and increasing competitiveness. I. European Missions and Technology HE first European space mission with electric propulsion has been flown in 1992. Since this time a variety of electric propulsion (EP) concepts have been studied and many of them have been implemented in recent, actual and coming missions. Latest successful milestone in European EP achievements is the GOCE satellite operating with the QinetiQ T5 ion engines for drag compensation in low earth orbit. It has reached its end of life after a very successful mission from 2009 to 2013. Another great example is AlphaSat where electric propulsion is used for NorthSouth Station Keeping (NSSK), which is in orbit since July 2013. Close to launch are the BepiColombo and Small Geo spacecrafts. A key element accompanying the various thruster evolutions is the development of electronic 1 Earth Explorer Missions Department, [email protected], AIAA Member 2 Electrical Engineering Department, [email protected]. 3 CEO, [email protected]. 4 Lead Engineer, [email protected]. 5 Data Handling & Power Conversion Department, [email protected]. 6 Data Handling & Power Conversion Department, [email protected]. 7 Data Handling & Power Conversion Department, [email protected]. 8 Electric Propulsion Technical Management, [email protected]. 9 Space Platform and Robotics Engineering, [email protected]. 10 Sales and Marketing Manager, [email protected]. 11 PPU Product Line Management, [email protected]. T American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1 equipment, dedicated to operate the thrusters by providing power, often at high voltage level, with their challenging impedance behavior and demanding control functions. European electric propulsion thrusters are developed and/or manufactured by the companies AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology) Seibersdorf in Austria (Indium-FEEP, Pulsed Plasma Thruster), AIRBUS-DS in Germany (RIT with RIT-10 and RIT-22, μN-RIT, Indium FEEP with AIT Seibersdorf), AIRBUS-DS in UK with the ROS2000 (Hall Effect Thruster), SITAEL in Italy (Cesium-FEEP, HT 100, HT 400, HT 5k Hall Effect Thrusters, and xenonoptimized resistojets and arcjets) SNECMA in France with the PPS-1350-G, PPS-1350-E, PPS-5000 (Hall Effect Thrusters), QinetiQ in UK with the T5 and T6 Kaufmann ion engines and Thales in Germany (HEMP-T 3050). Furthermore, Hall Effect thrusters (SPT-100) from FAKEL in Russia are also used. Companies currently providing highly developed products of PSCU and PPU electronic equipment in Europe are: • ASP Advanced Space Power Equipment, Germany • CRISA in Tres Cantos, Spain • Airbus DS in Friedrichshafen, Germany • Airbus DS in Elancourt, France • Selex ES (formerly Galileo Avionica and Selex Galileo) in Nerviano, Italy • SITAEL in Pisa/Bari, Italy • Thales Alenia Space Belgium (ETCA) in Charleroi, Belgium The Table 1 gives an overview of actual and recent European electronics developments for EP with reference to thruster applications and status. More details on the mission and the related development on the electronics are given in the f