Autonomous Low-Earth-Orbit Station-Keeping with Electric Propulsion

This paper studies the application of an electric propulsion system for autonomous station-keeping of a remote-sensing spacecraft flying at low altitude. The considered propulsion system exploits a xenon propellant bus, which operates both a low-power Hall-effect thruster and a resistojet. The former is used for continuous in-track control, while the latter provides the impulsive thrusts necessary for cross-track maneuvers. The adopted navigation solution is based on an extended Kalman filter, employing gyro, star-tracker, and Global Positioning System measurements. Lyapunov-based and proportional derivative feedback laws are used for orbit and attitude control, respectively. The performance of the proposed electric propulsion system and guidance, navigation, and control solution is evaluated on a low-Earth-orbit mission.