About the project
Develop a complete mission concept for satellites to detect the release of biological agents on the ground through constant monitoring from space. This technology can be used to monitor adherence to international treaties regulating the release of biological agents.
Earth observation is now carried out at 300km or lower Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) due to overcrowding and sustainability concerns in Low Earth Orbit. This offers many advantages such as:
- significantly lower latency
- reduced signal propagation losses
- extended coverage at higher resolution
- cost-effective manufacturing and launch processes
The satellite system design will be built on a nascent micro or nanosatellite platform known as HexSats. This quasi-two-dimensional satellite bus architecture is tailored for applications demanding high power, large apertures, and high manoeuvrability within a low-mass containerised satellite. Their drag coefficient compared to conventional box-shaped satellites is less than half. This makes them an ideal platform for VLEO satellites.
The propulsion system integrated into the platform will be based on the revolutionary all-printed propulsion system (ALPS) vacuum arc thruster technology developed at the University of Southampton. It provides light-weight micro-thrusters with enough thrust to maintain attitude and orbit in VLEO for several years.
The mission design and analysis will include the design of a formation of suitable satellites to achieve the observation and revisiting time objectives of the overarching mission. An appropriate control law will be required to maintain this formation using low thrust propulsion.
The preliminary design will then be analysed in detail by further developing our in-house CHAOS 6DOF numerical propagator. This has been designed specifically for low-thrust Earth observation missions. It models both the attitude and orbital dynamics of the proposed mission and ensures it meets all requirements.
