Autonomous Self-Stabilizing In-Spacecraft Tracker with Electrical Novel Thrusters (ASSISTENT)

With the growth of the space industry, it is predicted that more people will be launched to space for professional and tourism purposes. To assist inter-space-station activities during space-micro-gravity operations there is a need for an autonomous free-flying device that will follow and record their activities. This paper presents a device with innovative piezoelectric thrusters to control the motion of such a free-flying device in the pressurized micro-gravity environment. The Autonomous Self-Stabilizing In-Spacecraft Tool with Electrical Novel Thrusters (ASSISTENT) will be propelled by zero-net-mass-flux piezoelectric synthetic-jet thrusters (SJT) to control its movement inside the International Space Station (ISS) or in any other future space habitat. The development of these thrusters has shown that it benefits the design by being fully electric, small, light-weight, energy-efficient, and having no mechanical moving parts. These benefits allow to construct a free-flying device that is small, reliable, efficient, and easy to use and maintain. This space application of the so-called synthetic-jet thruster concept will be the first time it will be used for such an application. Its operation will shed new light on this device’s performance and capabilities for generating thrust and also for removing heat from a system. A successful outcome for this research will spur the development of new concepts using Synthetic Jet applications also on earth.