AC5 Peas Lifetime v2

0408-EX-ST-2013 Text Documents

Aerospace Corporation, THE

2013-04-29ELS_136316

Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program AeroCube 5/Peas Lifetime Analysis John P. McVey Glenn E. Peterson January 11, 2013 Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program © The Aerospace Corporation 2013

Background • AeroCube 5 will deploy small brass tubes called “Peas” from its pea placer device as part of the mission. • At the request of David Hinkley (Mechanics Research Office) Office), a long long-term term orbit evolution analysis was performed. • The analysis provided in this report will determine the lifetime of these Pea tubes as ejected j from AeroCube 5 and will determine compliance p with U.S. Debris Mitigation g Standard Practice requirement of an on-orbit lifetime less than 25 years. Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program

Long-Term Orbit Propagation Tools • Used precision integration code TRACE for orbit propagations – Developed by Aerospace (TRACE is used throughout the industry, but we used the most recent Aerospace version) – MSISE-86 atmosphere p model – 70 x 70 modified EGM-96 Earth gravity model – Sun and Moon gravity – Solar radiation pressure (assumed reflectivity coefficient = 1.3) • The Pea tubes are assumed to be ejected soon after Aerocube 5 deployment from the launch vehicle. Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program

Peas Initial Conditions • Area estimation: – Pea tube (assuming tumble) area = 1.007e-4 m2 • Mass estimate: 1.25 grams • Atmospheric Assumption: Considered 5th, 50th, 95th percentile levels of solar flux (F10.7 ) and geomagnetic index (Ap) – Used NASA Marshall Space Flight Center monthly predictions (based on NOAA data) from January 2012 to 2030; for years after 2030, repeated last 11-years (2019-2030) of Marshall predicted data • Initial orbit (p (provided by y David Hinkley) y) o – 469 x 972 km perigee/apogee altitude, 120 Inclination, Epoch: December 1, 2013 • Ejection velocity of the pea tubes at 1.2 m/s is considered negligible compared to the orbital velocity of spacecraft. spacecraft Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program

Lifetime: Pea tube • The 5th, 50th, 95th percentile atmospheric profiles were used to determine the orbit lifetime • The pea tube “nominal” 50th percentile lifetime is ~3.1 years – This result is bounded by lifetimes of 1.2 and 8.6 years with high (95th) and low (5th) atmospheric profile assumptions. • The pea tube de-orbited within 25 years after launch for all three solar cycle cases Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program

Conclusions • The Peas tube that is ejected from the AeroCube 5 satellite has an orbital lifetime of ~3.1 years in a “nominal” 50th percentile atmosphere. – The bounding cases of 95th or 5th percentile atmospheric profiles produce lifetimes of ~1 1.2 2 and 8.6 8 6 years. years • All cases comply with U.S. Debris Mitigation Standard Practice requirement of an on-orbit lifetime less than 25 years y Distribution authorized to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors John.P.McVey@aero.org only; Administrative Use, 31 March 2013. Other requests for this document shall be referred to The Aerospace Corporation PICOSAT Program


Document Created: 2013-04-01 13:41:36
Document Modified: 2013-04-01 13:41:36
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