Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference (한국추진공학회:학술대회논문집)
- 2008.03a
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- Pages.561-565
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- 2008
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- 1975-342X(pISSN)
Fundamental Experiments for Attitude Control of a Low Earth Orbit Satellite Using Ion Drag
- Ohue, Miho (ISAS/JAXA) ;
- Koizumi, Hiroyuki (ISAS/JAXA) ;
- Kuninaka, Hitoshi (ISAS/JAXA) ;
- Nishida, Michio (Sojo University)
- Published : 2008.03.30
Abstract
Generally, reaction wheels or thrusters are used for attitude control of a satellite. There is a potential method for the attitude control utilizing the plasma flow on the Low Earth Orbit. In the present study, experiments which simulate attitude control of a Low Earth Orbit Satellite using the ionosphere were conducted. In this experiment, a plasma flow was generated by a steady-state Hall type accelerator. However it is known that the Hall type accelerator, which is used as plasma source, produces a torque around its axis called "swirl torque". This torque would affect the attitude control in the above-mentioned experiments. First of all, we conducted the measurement of the swirl torque. Secondly, experiments using a satellite model with negative electrodes were conducted. The negative electrodes generated torque around the axis, and controlled the attitude of the satellite model by changing the applied voltage.