Design and Verification of Satellite Propulsion Layout with Force Couple for AC and Multi-thrust Options for OC

Considering the requirements of traditional thruster layout, the characteristics of missions and working loads of the satellites, a thruster layout method for attitude controlling (AC) with force couple and orbit controlling (OC) with multi-thrust options is proposed. By making reasonable use of surface space and optimizing configuration quantity of thruster of the satellites, impact on orbit altitude caused by attitude control is reduced as far as possible. With different thrust options, requirements for large impulse orbit transfer and small impulse trajectory maintenance are satisfied. Mathematical simulation and in-orbit flight verification show that the proposed method is effective and feasible.