Figure 9: Functional block diagram of the IES (image credit: JAXA, MELCO). Measurement of atmospheric density in super low altitude: There is a need for air density measurements in the altitude range of ~200 km. Because they sit in low-Earth orbit at up to 2,000 km (1,200 mi), they can observe large areas of the Earth's surface. The Super Low Altitude Test Satellite TSUBAME (SLATS) is about to defy this conventional way of orbiting satellites. "I would like to make use of this achievement toward the future science, technology and satellite utilization, and contribute toward helping to solve as many of our social issues as possible.". The samples consist of the conventional outside satellite materials and the next generation AO-resistance materials and so on. The TQCMs are located inside/outside of the SLATS structure, they measure the mass decrease of polyimide film which reacts with AO to become gas. To maintain the satellite at a low altitude over a long period of time, it needs to be continuously propelled by a gas jet, which in turn requires that the satellite be loaded with a massive amount of fuel. Since the atmosphere in the altitude range of 180-200 km contains a lot of atomic oxygen (AO), it can deteriorate the materials of a satellite and may cause some unexpected issues. The spatial resolution of optical cameras is proportional to the altitude. The AO (Atomic Oxygen) effects are measured by AOFS (Atomic Oxygen Fluence Sensor) and MDM (Material Degradation Monitor). At this altitude, a nuclear electrostatic ramjet will come into it's own! In mid-2012, SLATS is in the critical design phase.
Its main objectives are to understand the effects of high-density atomic oxygen on the satellite and to verify the possibility of orbit control using an ion engine system. 7), Figure 6: Functional block diagram of SLATS (image credit: JAXA), NSTT (Next-generation Star Tracker): JAXA in collaboration with NEC Toshiba Space Systems is developing NSTT to provide high-accuracy attitude determination results: the random error is < 4 arcsec (3σ), while the bias error is < 6 and 4 arcsec (3σ), respectively, for wide and narrow temperature ranges. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has a background in the history of science, technology, and medicine with a particular emphasis on aerospace, military, and cybernetic subjects. See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning. “TSUBAME” made use of the ion engine technology that JAXA has cultivated, and conducted technological evaluations to enable the further development of super low altitude satellites. The project will examine the change of spatial resolution following orbit transfer. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6), 1) Verification of super low altitude satellite system, 2) Measurement of atmospheric density in super low altitude. 3) On-orbit monitoring of atomic oxygen to understand the effects of high-density atomic oxygen on the satellite.

The thrust is automatically generated or stopped using orbit data gained by an on-board GPS receiver. Figure 8: Schematic view of the ion engine concept and the electrical interface between ITR and PPCU (image credit: JAXA, MELCO). The PMU supplies xenon gas to the ion thruster. The ORBIT mode is used in the altitude keeping operation of SLATS. The on/off command must be given to the PPCU autonomously as the contact time from a ground station is very short. The PMU is almost the same unit as used in the ETS-VIII (Kiku-8) propellant management system. After reaching the circular altitude of 250 km, the experiment of altitude control begins by using the IES. The optical camera takes imagery of the samples for studying the mechanism of degradation due to AO. To overcome this, TSUBAME was made out of special oxygen-resistant materials and was equipped with an ion engine and gas-jet thrusters to help it maintain orbit and precise positioning so it could capture surface images and measure oxygen concentrations. Electric power: 370 W @ 10 mN The PPCU consists of seven power supplies (PS-1~PS-7) for an ion thruster, an auxiliary power converter, a primary bus interface, and a signal interface circuit. 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SLATS is planned to be launched as a secondary payload on the ALOS-2 mission in 2013/14 on the H-IIA vehicle. The small OPS system will observe Earth's surface to verify the merit in spatial resolution. Figure 15: Photo of the OPS FM (image credit: JAXA), 1) Hiroshi Nagano, Kenichi Kajiwara, Yukio Hayakawa, Toshiyuki Ozaki:, Hiroyuki Osuga, “Development of the ion engine system for SLATS,“ Proceedings of the 61st IAC (International Astronautical Congress), Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2010, IAC-10.C4.4.1, 2) Hiroshi Nagano, Kenichi Kajiwara, Hiroyuki Osuga, Toshiyuki Ozaki, Takafumi Nakagawa, Kazuo Shuto, “Development Status of a New Power Processing Unit of Ion Engine System for the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite,” 31st International Electric Propulsion Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, Sept. 20–24, 2009, paper: IEPC-2009-058, URL: http://erps.spacegrant.org/uploads/images/images/iepc_articledownload_1988-2007/2009index/IEPC-2009-058.pdf, 3) Shunsuke Imamura, Masayoshi Utashima, “Initial Orbit Control of SLATS using Atmospheric Drag,” Proceedings of the 28th ISTS (International Symposium on Space Technology and Science), Okinawa, Japan, June 5-12, 2011, paper: 2011-d-48, 4) Akio Tsujihata, “Strategy and R&D for Space Applications Mission,” Microelectronics Workshop,Tsukuba International Congress Center, Japan, Nov. 10, 2010, URL: https://eeepitnl.tksc.jaxa.jp/mews/en/23rd/data/10-03.pdf, 5) Kazuya Konoue, S. Yamakawa, S. Imamura, H. Kohata, “Development of Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS),” Proceedings of the 63rd IAC (International Astronautical Congress), Naples, Italy, Oct. 1-5, 2012, paper: IAC-12-B1.2.18, 6) Haruo Kawasaki, Hiroki Kohata, Kazuya Konoue, Yohei Satoh, Shunsuke Imamura, “Development of the Super Low Altitude Test Satellite and Thermal Control,” Proceedings of the 29th ISTS (International Symposium on Space Technology and Science), Nagoya-Aichi, Japan, June 2-8, 2013, paper: 2013-r-27, 7) Kazuya Konoue, Nobuaki Igarashi, Shunsuke Imamura, Shiro Yamakawa, Hiroki Kohata, “Development of Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS),” Proceedings of the 28th ISTS (International Symposium on Space Technology and Science), Okinawa, Japan, June 5-12, 2011, paper: 2011-n-06, 8) Shuichi Matsumoto, Takanori Iwata, Hiroshi Kawai, Isamu Higashino, Kazuhide Noguchi, Koshi Sato, “Precision Autonomous Star Tracker for Agile Spacecraft,” Proceedings of the GNC 2011, 8th International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems, Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Czech Republic, June 5-10, 2011, 9) Hiroshi Nagano, Yukio Hayakawa, Hiroyuki Osuga, Toshiyuki Ozaki, Kazuo Shuto,“A New Orbit Control Algorithm for the 20 mN Class Ion Engine System,” Proceedings of the 33rd International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC), Washington D.C., USA, Oct. 6-10, 2013, paper: IEPC-2013-064, URL: http://www.iepc2013.org/get?id=064, 10) Hiroshi Nagano, Yukio Hayakawa, Kenichi Kajiwara, Hiroyuki Osuga, Isao Terukina, Kentaro Suzuki, Kazuo Shuto, “A New Power Processing Control Unit for a 20 mN Class Ion Engine System,” Proceedings of the 63rd IAC (International Astronautical Congress), Naples, Italy, Oct. 1-5, 2012, paper: IAC-12.C4.4.26, 11) Hiroshi Nagano, Kenichi Kajiwara, Yukio Hayakawa, Toshiyuki Ozaki, Yukikazu Kasai, “Optimization of the Operating Parameters for a 20 mN Class Ion Thruster,” 32nd International Electric Propulsion Conference, Wiesbaden, Germany, September 11 – 15, 2011, paper: IEPC-2011-032, URL: http://erps.spacegrant.org/uploads/images/images/iepc_articledownload_1988-2007/2011index/IEPC-2011-032.pdf, 12) Katsuhiro Miyazaki, Hiroshi Nagano, Kenichi Kajiwara, Yasushi Okawa, “Research and development of an ion engine for a super-low-altitude satellite,” 2011, JAXA, URL: http://www.ard.jaxa.jp/old/eng/publication/sorasora/2011_no42/ss2011no42_02.html, 13) Hiroshi Nagano, Kenichi Kajiwara, Hiroyuki Osuga, Toshiyuki Ozaki, Kazuo Shuto, “Design of a new discharge power supply for ion engine,” 14th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (EPE/PEMC), Ohrid, Macedonia, Sept. 6-10, 2010, 14) Keizo Nakagawa, “R&D of JAXA Satellite Application Mission,” MEWS26 (26th Microelectronics Workshop), Tsukuba, Japan, Oct. 24-25, 2013, URL: https://eeepitnl.tksc.jaxa.jp/mews/jp/26th/data/1_1.pdf.
PS-1 and PS-2 use the same high-voltage transformer to synchronize their output voltage.

Hence, the microsatellite will be deployed into a sun-synchronous orbit of ~630 km altitude, inclination = 97.9º, the LSDN (Local Sun time on Descending Node) is 12:00 hours ± 15 min. Isp: ~2000 s