This paper proposes a new mission concept devoted to the identification and tracking of space debris through observations made by multiple spacecraft. Specifically, a formation of spacecraft has been ...designed taking into account the characteristics and requirements of the utilized optical sensors as well as the constraints imposed by sun illumination and visibility conditions. The debris observations are then shared among the team of spacecraft, and processed onboard of a “hosting leader” to estimate the debris motion by means of Kalman filtering techniques. The primary contribution of this paper resides on the application of a distributed coordination architecture, which provides an autonomous and robust ability to dynamically form spacecraft teams once the target has been detected, and to dynamically build a processing network for the orbit determination of space debris. The team performance, in terms of accuracy, readiness and number of the detected objects, is discussed through numerical simulations.
•A new mission concept for surveillance of space debris using multiple spacecraft.•Dynamic Spacecraft formation for space debris detection and tracking.•Distributed coordination architecture for robust, autonomous team formation.•Onboard estimation of debris motion using extended and unscented Kalman filters.•Numerical validation and verification simulations for various scenarios.
World's birds disappearing due to humans' “growing footprint”. How war makes stock markets less volatile. Space debris: Time to act, says ESA. WHO estimates nearly 15 million excess deaths during ...pandemic.
The term “space debris” refers to spacecraft not removed from orbit at the end of their service life, upper stages in the geostationary orbit region, as well as to the fragments of spacecraft and ...upper stages formed as a result of deliberate or accidental collision of spacecraft and upper stages with each other or with natural space debris.
The problem of removing space debris from outer space is a global problem. Many countries are realizing projects on space debris cataloging, various technical means are being studied for space debris removal into graveyard orbits with parameters agreed upon by the international community. Various countries conducting space exploration have adopted special standards and guidelines for preventing the space debris formation 1,2,3,4.
The report 5 emphasizes that contamination of the near-Earth space is growing steadily. The probability of spacecraft collisions with each other is significantly increasing. This can lead to the functioning spacecraft characteristics degradation and even to complete loss of performance.
The article presents a brief overview of the methods and techniques that can be used to space debris removal into disposal orbits using flexible or virtual connection between space debris and service spacecraft.
•Active space debris removal projects and missions for space flight safety reviewed.•Demonstrated of net, tether, sail, laser, and ion beam application for space debris capture and removal.•Comparison of active space debris removal project are presented.
This paper delves into the management of space debris covering two main categories; preventive measures to mitigate space debris generation and methods for debris removal. Through a thorough review, ...it clarifies key aspects of outer space governance and the critical importance of effective space debris management. Space debris management methods are categorized into three main groups: prevention of debris generation, repair techniques, and collective/removal methods. Each category employs distinct approaches, which are discussed through its relevant equations and requirements. To define the requirements, two symbol spacecraft with masses of 25 and 100 kg in orbits at altitudes of 600 and 800 km are considered. This analysis aids in the selection of the most effective space debris management method for future space activities.
Space debris is one of the most urgent issues of modern astronautics, which solution requires a systematic and coordinated efforts of international community. Several lines of action can be ...identified to combat the space debris threat including improvement of spacecraft and rocket designs, revision of mission programs, space traffic management, active space debris removal, and collision avoidance measures. This paper introduces the reader to the main aspects of the problem of space debris. The main attention is paid to collision avoidance and active space debris removal measures. The article contains a detailed review and comparation of existing technical solutions and approaches, as well as the most important scientific research on the dynamics and control of various active space debris removal systems. Contactless transportation systems are considered in detail as a promising direction for creating safe and reliable space debris removal systems.
This is the second of two companion papers that describe the development of the RemoveDEBRIS space mission. This second article describes the in-orbit operations that were performed to demonstrate ...technologies to be used for the active removal of space debris, whereas the first paper described the development of the satellite's hardware.
The RemoveDebris mission has been the world's first Active Debris Removal (ADR) mission to successfully demonstrate, in orbit, some cost effective technologies, including net and harpoon capture; and elements of the whole sequence of operations, like the vision-based navigation.
The satellite was launched the 2nd of April 2018, to the International Space Station (ISS) and from there, on the 20th of June 2018, was deployed via the NanoRacks Kaber system into an orbit of 405 km altitude.
During the mission, two 2U CubeSats have been released by the mothercraft platform as artificial debris targets, to demonstrate net capture and cameras to be used for vision based navigation. Harpoon capture has been demonstrated by deploying a target and then firing at it a harpoon tethered to the platform. The various phases of the missions have been monitored using relevant telemetry and video cameras, and this paper reports the results of the various demonstrations.
•Describes a series of in-orbit demonstrations for the active removal of space debris.•Net and Harpoon debris capture systems performance are analysed.•Demonstration of Li-DAR camera for Vision Based Navigation System.•Demonstration of dragsail and discussion of anomalies and lesson learned.
The amount of space debris is rising rapidly, and the number of satellites launched by humans is also growing. This poses a serious threat to the security of many important space assets including the ...International Space Station and the China Space Station. Due to the frequent occurrence of hazardous space conjunction (potential collisions) events, we aim to use a constellation composed of a few optical satellites to observe these space dangerous conjunction events, thereby improving the observation accuracy and timeliness of key conjunction events. We consider a variety of factors to establish an optical nanosatellite constellation design model, develop constellation observation efficiency evaluation criteria, construct a constellation configuration evaluation function, and design the performance parameters of space-based optical telescopes. The optimal orbit parameters and constellation configuration are obtained by using the genetic algorithm for optimization calculation. It is determined that a constellation of 6 satellites can track and observe more than 96% of potentially dangerous conjunction objects 24–48 h before a dangerous conjunction occurs. According to the observation data, high-precision orbit information of space objects can be obtained, which can reduce the collision false alarm rate by 99%. As a result, operators are notified to take collision avoidance measures only when the space object is truly in danger. This approach greatly reduces the number of avoidance operations caused by false early warnings, lowers the operating cost of space assets, and ensures the safety of space assets.
As the Tethered Space Robot is considered to be a promising solution for the Active Debris Removal, a lot of problems arise in the approaching, capturing and removing phases. Particularly, kinematics ...and dynamics parameters of the debris are unknown, and parts of the states are unmeasurable according to the specifics of tether, which is a tough problem for the target retrieval/de-orbiting. This work proposes a full adaptive control strategy for the space debris removal via a Tethered Space Robot with unknown kinematics, dynamics and part of the states. First we derive a dynamics model for the retrieval by treating the base satellite (chaser) and the unknown space debris (target) as rigid bodies in the presence of offsets, and involving the flexibility and elasticity of tether. Then, a full adaptive controller is presented including a control law, a dynamic adaption law, and a kinematic adaption law. A modified controller is also presented according to the peculiarities of this system. Finally, simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of two proposed controllers.
•Dynamics model of the space debris removal via Tethered Space Robot is derived.•Flexibility and elasticity of tether, and attitude of two satellites are included.•A full adaptive control strategy for the space debris removal via TSR is proposed.•The controller is with unknown kinematics, dynamics and part of the states.•A modified controller is also presented according to the system peculiarities.
•The risk to spacecraft from impact damage by space debris is characterised by debris size and shown to peak at 1–10 mm.•Use of CubeSats to host impact detectors for 1 mm size debris is shown to be ...feasible and cost-effective.•The impact detector technologies available for use on CubeSats are summarised.
Impacts on spacecraft by mm-sized debris in Earth orbit can have severe consequences including loss of a spacecraft and generation of more debris. This hazard and potential mitigation are discussed herein, and the risk of an impact (the product of flux and damage) is found vs. size. Reduction of the future flux of mm-sized debris by de-orbiting life-expired space vehicles, only reduces, not eliminates, this hazard. It is thus vital that the flux of mm-sized objects in orbit is well defined, but this requires on-orbit determination. To provide statistically meaningful debris flux data, large detection areas are traditionally required. CubeSats could host debris detectors, but only have small surface areas, and the data from many would be required. Accordingly, flux data from historic small space exposed surfaces are compared herein to MASTER flux model predictions, with good agreement for exposure times of just a few years, demonstrating a viable method to determine the debris flux. The cost of a network of CubeSat mounted impact detectors is also estimated found, and, for fleets of order 100 CubeSats, is comparable to the traditional single large satellite mounted instrument.
To efficiently implement space debris removal missions on geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), a scheduling optimization scheme of multiple hybrid-propulsive servicing spacecraft (SSc) is proposed. In ...this scheme, a many-to-many task allocation coding model is established to formulate the removal sequences of debris targets with respect to different SSc. And a hybrid-propulsive orbit transfer strategy is developed to implement the debris removal maneuvers to save the propellant consumption and removal time simultaneously via using both electric and chemical propulsion systems. Then, the multiple GEO space debris removal scheduling optimization problem is formulated to minimize the total propellant consumption by exploring the optimal removal sequences and orbit maneuver parameters, subject to the available velocity increment, removal time, and many-to-many task allocation constraints. To effectively solve the scheduling optimization problem involving discrete-continuous mixed variables, a clustering based adaptive differential evolution algorithm with potential individual reservation (CADE-PIR) is proposed. In CADE-PIR, the k-means clustering method and potential individual reservation mutation strategy are employed to promote the convergence rate and performance of exploration and exploitation. In the end, a real-world GEO space debris removal mission with multiple SSc is investigated to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed optimization scheme.
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