Survey and Performance Evaluation of Small-Satellite Propulsion Technologies

TLDR

Small satellites are increasingly popular due to their affordability and versatility, finding applications in government, industry, and academia, and their continued advancement hinges on the aerospace industry's ability to provide affordable, reliable, and efficient miniaturized thrusters. This study compares the advertised performance of existing chemical, cold gas, and electric propulsion systems across two representative smallsat missions to provide mission‑enabling information to the smallsat research community. The authors evaluate tradeoffs among performance, cost, and reliability by comparing advertised performance of chemical, cold gas, and electric propulsion systems for two representative smallsat missions. Electric propulsion systems outperform others in both low‑impulse long‑duration and high‑impulse interplanetary missions, with electrospray and pulsed plasma thrusters showing minimal wet‑mass increase (<0.5 kg per year) and gridded ion thrusters maintaining high specific impulse while adding less than 25 kg for a 2000 m/s ΔV.

Abstract

The growing interest in small satellites (smallsats) is primarily a function of their affordability and versatility across a wide range of space mission applications. For these reasons, smallsats have found valuable applications in government, industry, and academic settings. The continued advancement of smallsats depends on the ability of the aerospace industry to supply affordable, reliable, and efficient miniaturized spacecraft thrusters. Choosing a suitable propulsion system for a smallsat mission involves tradeoffs between performance, cost, and reliability. This study compares the advertised performance of existing chemical, cold gas, and electric propulsion systems across two representative smallsat missions with the goal of providing mission-enabling information to the smallsat research community. Results show that electric propulsion systems are the top performers for both missions. The required wet mass for electrospray thrusters and pulsed plasma devices demonstrated low sensitivity to increasing orbit lifetime, increasing less than 0.5 kg over year increases in orbit lifetime, making them the top-performing systems in a low-impulse long-duration mission. Because of their characteristically high specific impulse, gridded ion thrusters emerged as the top-performing systems in a high-impulse interplanetary mission with delivered mass capability decreasing less than 25 kg for a delta-V increase of 2000 m/s.