MICROSCOPE satellite and its drag-free and attitude control system

Abstract This paper focuses on the description of the design and performance of the MICROSCOPE satellite and its drag-free and attitude control system. The satellite is derived from CNES’ Myriade platform family, albeit with significant upgrades dictated by the unprecedented MICROSCOPE’s mission req...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Classical and quantum gravity 2022-10, Vol.39 (20), p.204003
Main Authors: Robert, Alain, Cipolla, Valerio, Prieur, Pascal, Touboul, Pierre, Métris, Gilles, Rodrigues, Manuel, André, Yves, Bergé, Joel, Boulanger, Damien, Chhun, Ratana, Christophe, Bruno, Guidotti, Pierre-Yves, Hardy, Emilie, Lebat, Vincent, Lienart, Thomas, Liorzou, Françoise, Pouilloux, Benjamin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
cold gas propulsion
drag-free
equivalence principle
experimental gravitation
general relativity
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Instrumentation and Detectors
microsatellite
Physics
space accelerometers
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Summary:Abstract This paper focuses on the description of the design and performance of the MICROSCOPE satellite and its drag-free and attitude control system. The satellite is derived from CNES’ Myriade platform family, albeit with significant upgrades dictated by the unprecedented MICROSCOPE’s mission requirements. The 300 kg drag-free microsatellite has completed its 2 years flight with higher-than-expected performances. Its passive thermal concept allowed for temperature variations smaller than 1 μ K at the frequency of the equivalence principle test f EP . The propulsion system provided a six-axis continuous and very low noise thrust from zero to some hundreds of micronewtons. Finally, the performance of its DFACS (aimed at compensating the disturbing forces and torques applied to the satellite) is the finest ever achieved in low Earth orbit, with residual accelerations along the three axes lower than 10 −12 m s −2 at f EP over 8 days.
ISSN:0264-9381
1361-6382
DOI:10.1088/1361-6382/ac09cd