Abstract: The gravity center offset of spacecraft was generally compensated by adding some balancing weight. The balancing weight was not able to provide other support for spacecraft mission, thus it reduced the loading efficiency of spacecraft. For the spacecraft equipped with high density gas cylinders, e.g. xenon, a new method was raised to compensate the offset of gravity center of spacecraft by the intentional temperature control of xenon cylinders, so as to reduce the use of balancing weight. The gravity center offset compensation ability influenced by the temperature control of xenon cylinders was positively related to xenon mass ratio and xenon cylinders′ centroid spacing. Under the condition of application for spacecraft, the gravity center offset with magnitude order of tens of millimeters can be compensated by the temperature control of xenon cylinders and the minimum compensation error was approximately 2mm. References for gravity center compensation of electric propulsion spacecraft can be provided.

Key words: spacecraft, gravity center compensation, electric propulsion, xenon cylinder, temperature control