An electric model for bare-photovoltaic tethers in the passive mode

Del Pino Jiménez, Ángel; Sánchez Arriaga, Gonzalo

Publication:
An electric model for bare-photovoltaic tethers in the passive mode

dc.affiliation.dpto	UC3M. Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial	es
dc.contributor.author	Del Pino Jiménez, Ángel	Es
dc.contributor.author	Sánchez Arriaga, Gonzalo	Es
dc.date.accessioned	2023-12-22T16:56:41Z
dc.date.available	2023-12-22T16:56:41Z
dc.date.issued	2024-01
dc.description.abstract	A bare-photovoltaic tether (BPT) is a long conductive tape in orbit that provides propellant-less propulsion and power harvesting. An electric model for a BPT operating in the passive mode and composed of a bare segment and a bare-photovoltaic (bare-pv) segment coated with thin-film solar cells on one side is presented. The pv cells, which are electrically insulated from the conductive substrate, are connected to two electric busbars that also serve as electrical contacts to the spacecraft. The power harvested by the cells can be used by the spacecraft or, as considered in this work, to boost tether performance. The electric model takes into account that, depending on the number and location of zero-bias points, four regimes of operation exist for this type of BPT. Current and voltage profiles solutions that are not possible for standard bare tethers are presented. A parametric analysis of the operation regimes varying the tether length, the length of the pv segment, and the power was carried out. Two complementary methods to find the optimum length of the bare-pv segment for a given total tether length and mission are presented. The first method is based on the optimization of the normalized average current, which controls the strength of the Lorentz force and measures tether efficiency and the second method uses as figure of merit the deorbit time in postmission disposal scenarios. For both of them it is shown that an optimum exists for the length of the pv segment. An enhancement in performance above 30% as compared with standard bare tethers was found for the considered scenario.	En
dc.description.sponsorship	This work was funded by the European Space Agency, France under the project “A Consumable-less Propulsion System Based on a Bare-Photovoltaic Tether” (ESA 4000135893//21/NL/GLC/ov ) of the Discovery Programme. Authors are grateful to the partners of the project for fruitful discussions.
dc.description.status	Publicado	Es
dc.format.extent	10
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation	Pino Jiménez, Á. del; Sánchez-Arriaga, Gonzalo. Acta Astronautica, An electric model for bare-photovoltaic tethers in the passive mode. In: Acta astronautica, vol. 214, Jan. 2024, Pp.609-618.
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.11.008
dc.identifier.issn	0094-5765
dc.identifier.publicationfirstpage	609
dc.identifier.publicationlastpage	618
dc.identifier.publicationtitle	Acta astronautica
dc.identifier.publicationvolume	214
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10016/39160
dc.identifier.uxxi	AR/0000033665
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAA	En
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576523005696?via%3Dihub
dc.rights	© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAA.	En
dc.rights	Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España	*
dc.rights	This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license	en
dc.rights.accessRights	open access	En
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/	*
dc.subject.eciencia	Ingeniería Industrial	es
dc.subject.other	Electrodynamic tether	En
dc.subject.other	Space debris	En
dc.subject.other	Electric propulsión	es
dc.subject.other	Bare-photovoltaic	En
dc.subject.other	Thin film solar cells	En
dc.title	An electric model for bare-photovoltaic tethers in the passive mode	En
dc.type	research article	en
dc.type.hasVersion	VoR	En
dspace.entity.type	Publication