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.