1st IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA) Orlando, FL, USA IAA-ICSSA-17-0X-XX DIFFERENTIAL DRAG DEMONSTRATION: A POST-MISSION EXPERIMENT WITH THE EO-1 SPACECRAFT

Differential drag is a technique for altering the semimajor axis, velocity, and alongtrack position of a spacecraft in low Earth orbit. It involves varying the spacecraft’s cross-sectional area relative to its velocity direction by temporarily changing attitude and solar array angles, thus varying the amount of atmospheric drag on the spacecraft. The technique has recently been proposed and used by at least three satellite systems for initial separation of constellation spacecraft after launch, stationkeeping during the mission, and potentially for conjunction avoidance. Similarly, differential drag has been proposed as a control strategy for rendezvous, removing the need for active propulsion. In theory, some operational missions that lack propulsion capability could use this approach for conjunction avoidance, though options are typically constrained for spacecraft that are already in orbit.