Assessment of possibility of photon drive application in order to maintain small spacecraft orbit

Authors: Gubzhev E.A.
Published in issue: #10(27)/2018
DOI: 10.18698/2541-8009-2018-10-393
Category: Aviation and Rocket-Space Engineering | Chapter: Aircraft Dynamics, Ballistics, Motion Control
Keywords: photon drive, space garbage, low-orbiting spacecraft, nanosatellite, low orbit, head drag coefficient, atmosphere, orbiting satellite lifetime
Published: 31.10.2018

Until the present time, photon thrust has not been used to change parameters of spacecraft orbit, which was due to the smallness of thrust power. In this paper, possibility of photon drive application to maintain orbit of small spacecraft, as well as to reduce it from orbit, was estimated. For this purpose, satellite lifetime was estimated, considering presence of photon drives and without them. As a result, the work justified possibility of photon drive application to support small spacecraft as exemplified by Flock-1 satellite. As a result of the research, it was established that the considered method of orbit altitude maintaining the can be used in development of promising small spacecraft. The main advantage of this method is its simplicity, its disadvantage is its energy consumption.

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