Discover the SciOpen Platform and Achieve Your Research Goals with Ease.
Space debris have become exceedingly dangerous over the years as the number of objects in orbit continues to increase. Active debris removal (ADR) missions have gained significant interest as effective means of mitigating the risk of collision between objects in space. This study focuses on developing a multi-ADR mission that utilizes controlled reentry and deorbiting. The mission comprises two spacecraft: a Servicer that brings debris to a low altitude and a Shepherd that rendezvous with the debris to later perform a controlled reentry. A preliminary mission design tool (PMDT) was developed to obtain time and fuel optimal trajectories for the proposed mission while considering the effect of J2, drag, eclipses, and duty cycle. The PMDT can perform such trajectory optimizations for multi-debris missions with computational time under a minute. Three guidance schemes are also studied, taking the PMDT solution as a reference to validate the design methodology and provide guidance solutions to this complex mission profile.
Maestrini, M., Di Lizia, P. Guidance strategy for autonomous inspection of unknown non-cooperative resident space objects. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 2022, 45(6): 1126–1136.
Kessler, D. J., Cour-Palais, B. G. Collision frequency of artificial satellites: The creation of a debris belt. Journal of Geophysical Research, 1978, 83(A6): 2637–2646.
Pelton, J. N. Space Debris and Other Threats from Outer Space. New York: Springer, 2013.
Mark, C. P., Kamath, S. Review of active space debris removal methods. Space Policy, 2019, 47: 194–206.
Bonnal, C., Ruault, J. M., Desjean, M. C. Active debris removal: Recent progress and current trends. Acta Astronautica, 2013, 85: 51–60.
Liou, J. C. An active debris removal parametric study for LEO environment remediation. Advances in Space Research, 2011, 47(11): 1865–1876.
Forshaw, J. L., Aglietti, G. S., Fellowes, S., Salmon, T., Retat, I., Hall, A., Chabot, T., Pisseloup, A., Tye, D., Bernal, C., et al. The active space debris removal mission RemoveDebris. Part 1: From concept to launch. Acta Astronautica, 2020, 168: 293–309.
White, A. E., Lewis, H. G. The many futures of active debris removal. Acta Astronautica, 2014, 95: 189–197.
Cerf, M. Fast solution of minimum-time low-thrust transfer with eclipses. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2019, 233(7): 2699–2714.
Rimani, J., Paissoni, C. A., Viola, N., Saccoccia, G., Gonzalez del Amo, J. Multidisciplinary mission and system design tool for a reusable electric propulsion space tug. Acta Astronautica, 2020, 175: 387–395.
Viavattene, G., Devereux, E., Snelling, D., Payne, N., Wokes, S., Ceriotti, M. Design of multiple space debris removal missions using machine learning. Acta Astronautica, 2022, 193: 277–286.
Edelbaum, T. N. Propulsion requirements for controllable satellites. ARS Journal, 1961, 31(8): 1079–1089.
Kechichian, J. A. Reformulation of Edelbaum’s low-thrust transfer problem using optimal control theory. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 1997, 20(5): 988–994.
Kluever, C. A. Using Edelbaum’s method to compute low-thrust transfers with Earth-shadow eclipses. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 2011, 34(1): 300–303.
Neta, B., Vallado, D. On satellite umbra/penumbra entry and exit positions. The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, 1998, 46(1): 91–103.
Cerf, M. Optimal plan for multiple debris removal missions. RAIRO - Operations Research, 2017, 51(4): 1005–1032.
Gondelach, D. J., Armellin, R. Element sets for high-order Poincaré mapping of perturbed Keplerian motion. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 2018, 130(10): 65.
480
Views
41
Downloads
10
Crossref
10
Web of Science
11
Scopus
0
CSCD
Altmetrics
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.