Initial Flight Operations of the Miniature Propulsion System Installed on Small Space Probe: PROCYON

作者：Hiroyuki Koizumi, Hiroki Kawahara, Kazuya Yaginuma, Jun Asakawa, Yuichi Nakagawa, Yusuke Nakamura, Shunichi Kojima, Toshihiro Matsuguma, Ryu Funase, Junichi Nakatsuka, Kimiya Komurasaki · 发表于：TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY FOR AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.2322/tastj.14.pb_13 · 被引用次数：63 · 研究领域：Plasma Diagnostics and Applications、Electrohydrodynamics and Fluid Dynamics、Astro and Planetary Science

Initial flight operations of the miniature propulsion system I-COUPS (Ion Thruster and COld-gas Thruster Unified Propulsion System) are presented with problems found in space and its countermeasures for them. The I-COUPS was developed by the University of Tokyo and installed on a 70 kg space probe, PROCYON as main propulsion system to verify propulsive capability of the first micropropulsion in deep space. The PROCYON was successfully launched on December 3rd, 2014 and inserted into an orbit around the Sun. The PROYON project team started flight operation on the interplanetary orbit. Up to today, the cold-gas thrusters have successfully conducted unloading maneuvers since the launch. The ion thruster overcame several problems and achieved 223 hours operation with the averaged thrust of 346 μN. The I-COUPS will become the first electric propulsion and reaction control system operated on a small space probe (<100 kg) on an interplanetary orbit.