Electric propulsion for International Space Station reboost - A fresh look

Electric propulsion has recently been revisited for reboost of space station due to its high fuelefficiency. This paper focuses upon the propulsion system and orbit analysis trades undertaken at thebeginning of a study to show the relative performance of potential electric propulsion system. A codewas developed to analyze continuous low thrust reboost of space station with various electricpropulsion systems at various power levels. Analysis showed that a major portion of reboost of spacestation can be made using electric propulsion systems with 0.5 N of continuous thrust. 1.0 N of EPthrust can provide almost the entire reboost mission. Three electric propulsion systems at various totalpower levels were chosen for further investigation: N2H4 arcjets at 5 kW, xenon Hall at 10 kW, andxenon ion thrusters at 20 kW. They were chosen for their ability to reduce the internationallylaunched chemical reboost fuel by 50% or more. Introduction Electric propulsion has been explored in thepast for reboost of space station.