Parametric Analysis of High-Delta-V CubeSat Missions with a Miniature Ion Thruster

What is it about?

Miniature satellites the around size of a loaf of bread, called CubeSats, are a popular choice by universities, companies, and governments for space missions because of their low cost and standardized components. The number of CubeSats launched increases yearly, but are limited due to a lack of high performance, miniature space propulsion. This study investigates a notional CubeSat mission using a miniature high efficiency ion thruster, called the Miniature Xenon Ion thruster (MiXI), and determines how thruster performance affects mission capability like possible payload volume and mass, or orbital transfer possibilities.

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