SMART-1 Electrical Propulsion Steering Mechanism (EPMEC)

The SMART-1 Spacecraft is due to launch in 2002 and is being developed as a test bed for various new technologies that will be needed for interplanetary missions. One of these new technologies is the Electric Propulsion system (EPS) which is to be used as the main source of thrust during the mission. Contraves Space AG were selected for the development of a,low budget" Steering Mechanism (EPMEC) for the EPS and for the associated drive electronics (EPMEL). The EPS selected for the SMART-1 mission is the PPS 1350 developed by SNECMA Moteurs in France. Since this thruster configuration is almost identical to that used on the STENTOR mission, the use of this thruster unit have placed certain limitations on the design of the EPMEC. In satisfying the requirements, the design of the EPMEC described in this paper utilised some novel ideas and new technologies in the spacecraft mechanism branch. The EPMEC mechanism has recently successfully completed the qualification test programme for SMART-1 and has been mounted into the spacecraft for system testing. The flight model is currently in manufacture. The results from the Qualification Tests will also be briefly presented in this paper.