Joint Trajectory and Energy Management Simulation of Low Thrust Missions

Spacecraft equipped with electric propulsion systems need an accurate monitoring of on-board available energy. The high power-to-thrust ratios typical of these propulsive systems and their long thrusting periods cause a major demand of electrical power, so that the use of electric propulsion strongly influence the management of on-board resources. The strong interaction among power generation, energy storage and propulsion is evident considering that both the energy availability and the power required by the main subsystems affect the spacecraft thrusting capabilities. Thus, it is clear that these aspects must be considered jointly even in preliminary mission analysis. The integrated simulator here presented, SATSLab, is conceived to support preliminary mission analysis considering the coupling of on-board available energy and attitude-orbital dynamics in electric propulsion equipped missions. In this paper a brief overview of the STASLab software package is given. Examples of relevant mission scenarios are presented, highlighting the simulator capability to reveal non-trivial features of the energy-trajectory interplay.