• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2016

NEXTSat-1 is the next-generation small-size artificial satellite system planed by the Satellite Technology Research Center(SatTReC) in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST). For the control of attitude and transition of the orbit, the system has adopted a RHM(Resisto-jet Head Module), which has a very simple geometry with a reasonable efficiency. An axisymmetric model is devised with two coil-resistance heaters using xenon(Xe) gas, and the minimum required specific impulse is 60 seconds under the thrust more than 30 milli-Newton. To design the module, seven basic parameters should be decided: the nozzle shape, the power distribution of heater, the pressure drop of filter, the diameter of nozzle throat, the slant length and the angle of nozzle, and the size of reservoir, etc. After quasi one-dimensional analysis, a theoretical value of specific impulse is calculated, and the optima of parameters are found out from the baseline with a series of multi-physical numerical simulations based on the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for gas and the heat conduction energy equation for solid. A commercial code, COMSOL Multiphysics is used for the computation with a FEM (finite element method) based numerical scheme. The final values of design parameters indicate 5.8% better performance than those of baseline design after the verification with all the tuned parameters. The present method should be effective to reduce the time cost of trial and error in the development of RHM, the thruster of NEXTSat-1.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2014

The ground station which operates the LEO satellite performs monitoring state of health of the satellite, sending the commands for the imaging mission of receiving the images during about 10 minutes of contact time. To finish the planned procedure in limited contact time, specific level of autonomy is applied in the satellite and the ground system. For example, the attitude and orbit control logic has high level of autonomy because it must be operated alone for long period without operator intervention. On the other hand, the fault management logic has relatively low level of autonomy because of that failure detection and safing operation are performed on-board, whereas failure identification and recovery are on-ground operation. The level of autonomy of the satellite affects also the ground operation. The command set for mission operation is generated by ground system. If the satellite has higher level of autonomy, some of operation currently done on-ground can be performed on-board, so the ground operation can be simplified. In this paper, we discuss the level of autonomy and propose a concept for improving the level of autonomy of an LEO satellite.