2.4.1 Decision Analysis for Design Trades for A Combined Scientific‐Technological Mission Orbit on Venμs Micro Satellite

The scope of the VENμS Technological Mission is to evaluate and qualify the IHET (Israeli Hall Effect Thruster) performance in space and to use the IHET for mission enhancement. IHET will be used to demonstrate space missions that require high V and are hardly achievable using traditional chemical propulsion in microsatellties. During the satellite's third mission phase (VM3) the VENμS satellite will fly in a high drag environment. The IHET will be used for autonomous orbit maintenance to enable continuation of the scientific mission, which is vegetation monitoring. This paper describes the selection of VM3 orbit. Different orbit candidate alternatives were compared according to pre-determined criteria and weighted accordingly, using the NGT technique. After all candidate alternatives were analyzed, they were compared using a Decision Analysis for Design Trades method. Based on the analysis, the final orbit was chosen.