The Comet Thruster: On-Orbit Results and Expanding Production Capability
- Paper number
IAC-19,C4,8-B4.5A,8,x49539
- Author
Mr. Vincent Tarantini, United States, Bradford Space, Inc.
- Coauthor
Mr. Nathan Orr, United States, Deep space Industries
- Coauthor
Mr. Scott Armitage, Canada, Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto
- Coauthor
Mr. Karan Sarda, Canada, Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto
- Coauthor
Mr. Daniel CaJacob, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Niels Roth, Canada, Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto
- Year
2019
- Abstract
Bradford Space Inc's Comet line of water-based thermoelectric propulsion systems has helped to enable small satellite constellations achieve their mission goals. In late 2016 Deep Space Industries, now Bradford Space Inc, set out to revolutionize small satellite propulsion technology. The idea was to develop a green propulsion system that was simple, reliable, and could boast impressive performance numbers. Water was chosen as the propellant for its storage density, resistojet performance, safety and simplicity of handling. The team worked to develop the system and shipped the first three units for the Hawkeye Pathfinder mission in mid-2017, less than one year after the initial concept was conceived. In December 2018 all three systems were launched and are performing nominally on orbit. To date, four spacecraft carrying Comet systems have been launched. Preliminary results indicate excellent performance matching the expectations from ground testing. This paper will present on-orbit performance results for the Comet thrusters onboard the three HawkEye spacecraft and compare against expectations based on ground test data. Performance data was independently gathered and processed by the spacecraft bus providers at the Univeristy of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies Space Flight Laboratory The HawkEye 360 pathfinder mission is utilizing the Comet thrusters for precise formation control the triangulation and geolocation of RF signals from the surface of the Earth. The results show that the system performs just as expected achieving a thrust of XXX mN and I_sp of YYY s with a steady state power consumption of ZZ W. Comet propulsion systems have since been selected on three major constellation programs and orders for 2019/2020 are approaching 30 units per year. 2019 will see an up to 15 additional Comet-equipped spacecraft being launched and acquire their operational orbits thanks to Comet. Scaling production to meet increasing demands has been a distinct challenge for a team of small spacecraft engineers more accustomed to one-off builds and single digit production. Design iterations now place heavy focus on the critical aspects of production engineering: ease of integration, optimizing test flow, quality control and assurance, documentation, and supply-chain management. Our production challenges, successes and failures will also be discussed in this paper.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)