Performance analysis of nano-sat scale μCAT electric propulsion for 3U CubeSat attitude control

Abstract In recent years, the complexity of CubeSat missions has been increasing steadily as the platform capabilities have drastically improved. Missions involving high-accuracy pointing and interplanetary exploration are no longer out of the reach of CubeSat-class satellites. For fine-pointing, the currently available options are dominated by reaction-wheels. One promising alternative is the use of low-thrust propulsion systems for providing fine pointing capability. Electric propulsion systems will not have the high slew-rate of the reaction wheels or ΔV responsiveness of conventional thrusters. However, if the main objective of the mission is in providing high-accuracy pointing, long-term attitude stability, orbit maintenance, and long-term orbit maneuvers, then a multi-thruster electrical propulsion system can be substituted as the combined attitude control and propulsion system, resulting in volume and cost savings. This paper characterizes the performance of one such CubeSat attitude control system. First, the characterization results of a representative CubeSat-scale electric propulsion system, the μCAT vacuum arc thruster, are given. Using these performance parameters, the theoretical pointing accuracy and target dwell time are analyzed and discussed. The paper also highlights potential application of the electric propulsion system and provides comparison results of the system performance as compared to other commercially available units in terms of cost, volumetric efficiency, and resource consumption.