Attitude control requirements for an earth-orbital solar electric propulsion stage

Abstract

Solar Electric Propulsion Stage (SEPS) application in earth orbit requires considerably more maneuvering for thrust vector steering and solar array pointing than planetary missions. Attitude maneuver requirements for geosynchronous and low earth-orbital missions are presented. Situations which result in optimum steering torque requirements exceeding the capability of current SEPS configurations are defined. Sub-optimal steering techniques are defined which reduce the geosynchronous mission torque requirements to acceptable levels with negligible performance penalties. Some low earth-orbital flight regimes with earth shadowing are found to result in much larger torque requirements and impose significant mechanization penalties if serious performance losses are to be avoided. Alternative attitude control mechanization techniques are defined for these cases.