SAN FRANCISCO – The University of Wurzburg Experimental-4 (UWE-4) cubesat from Germany avoided a possible collision in early July while lowering its altitude with Morpheus Space’s NanoFEEP electric propulsion system.
It was the first time that a unit cube had performed a collision avoidance maneuver, said Istvan Lorincz, president and co-founder of Morpheus. SpaceNews.
The increasing popularity of small satellites is driving companies around the world to develop miniature thrusters to help cubesats avoid collisions, change altitudes, fly in formation, and leave orbit when their missions are complete.
From June 23 to July 3, the UWE-4 cubeat fired its NanoFEEP thrusters multiple times to reduce its altitude by more than 100 meters. In comparison, natural orbital decomposition would reduce altitude by 21 meters in the same time period, according to a press release from the University of Wuerzburg.
On July 2, when Cubesat UWE-4 was lowering its altitude, the University received a warning from the United States Air Force.th Space control squadron of a July 5 conjunction with a retired Iridium satellite.
When UWE-4 mission operations personnel analyzed the conjunction, they determined that cubesat UWE-4 would not collide with the Iridium satellite because it would be orbiting at a lower altitude. As a result of the analysis, UWE-4 mission operations personnel continued to fire propellers to lower the cubesat’s altitude. They received no more conjunction messages.
The cubeat UWE-4 with four NanoFEEP thrusters housed on its rails launched in late 2018. The 160-gram NanoFEEP developed by the Technical University of Dresden combines a liquid gallium propellant with a chip-based neutralizer.
The UWE-4 program, funded by the German space agency DLR, focuses on the development of technologies for cubesat formation flight.
