Abstract
Operating satellites at altitudes in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) has many advantages. However, due to the higher atmospheric density of this region, satellites encounter significantly higher atmospheric drag. Depending on the mission, this may require a propulsive system to maintain the orbit which costs both fuel mass and volume. It is therefore desirable to reduce the drag in order to either reduce these costs or to extend the operational life. In this paper a series of viable aeroshell profiles are identified for satellites operating in VLEO using a Radial Basis Function-based surrogate model with data generated using both Panel Methods and Discrete Simulation Monte Carlo simulations. It was demonstrated that a maximum drag reduction of between 21% and 35% was achievable for the profiles when optimizing a bi-conic profile for minimum drag based on Discreet Simulation Monte Carlo simulations with an energy accommodation coefficient of 0.95. Accounting for the loss of internal volume and assuming the reduction in fuel mass results in an equally proportioned reduction in fuel system volume it was observed that only a 13% to 27% reduction was achieved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 105-121 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Acta Astronautica |
Volume | 179 |
Early online date | 16 Sept 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 16 Sept 2020 |
Keywords
- VLEO
- Shape Optimisation
- Surrogate Modelling
- DSMC
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Dive into the research topics of 'Drag Reduction through Shape Optimisation for Satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Student theses
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A consideration of geometry in very-low Earth orbit satellites
Walsh, J. A. (Author), Berthoud, L. (Supervisor) & Allen, C. B. (Supervisor), 12 May 2022Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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HPC (High Performance Computing) and HTC (High Throughput Computing) Facilities
Alam, S. R. (Manager), Williams, D. A. G. (Manager), Eccleston, P. E. (Manager) & Greene, D. (Manager)
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