Mission analysis of a 1U CubeSat post-mission disposal using a thin-film vacuum arc thruster

Abstract

We present the operation of the CubeSat De-orbiting All-Printed Propulsion System (Cube-de-ALPS), a thin-film Vacuum Arc Thruster being developed at the University of Southampton in collaboration with the European Space Agency to provide robust de-orbiting capability to sub-3U CubeSats. It comprises a flexible substrate on which coplanar arrays of vacuum arc micro-thrusters (micro-VAT) are printed alongside small supporting electronic subsystems. In particular, we focus on the application of a Cube-de-ALPS End-Of-Life disposal to an under-actuated 1U CubeSat with uncontrolled spin. In this scenario, a Faraday cup will provide coarse angle-of-attack estimates and trigger a single micro-VAT to ignite every time it points towards the forward velocity vector. Orbital lifetime estimates for different fuel materials, configurations, and operational modes are estimated using simplified dynamics and analytical thrust averaging. These results are compared to high-fidelity numerical simulations including full six degrees of freedom coupled attitude and orbital dynamics to confirm the viability of the concept and confirm that Cube-de-ALPS can de-orbit CubeSats from 1400 km.

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