ORBITAL DEBRIS-DEBRIS COLLISION AVOIDANCE

摘要

We focus on preventing collisions between debris and debris, for which there is no current, effective mitigation strategy. Weinvestigate the feasibility of using a medium-powered (5 kW) ground-based laser combined with a ground-based telescope to preventcollisions between debris objects in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The scheme utilizes photon pressure alone as a means to perturbthe orbit of a debris object. Applied over multiple engagements, this alters the debris orbit sufficiently to reduce the risk of anupcoming conjunction. We employ standard assumptions for atmospheric conditions and the resulting beam propagation. Usingcase studies designed to represent the properties (e.g. area and mass) of the current debris population, we show that one couldsignificantly reduce the risk of nearly half of all catastrophic collisions involving debris using only one such laser/telescope facility.We speculate on whether this could mitigate the debris fragmentation rate such that it falls below the natural debris re-entry ratedue to atmospheric drag, and thus whether continuous long-term operation could entirely mitigate the Kessler syndrome in LEO,without need for relatively expensive active debris removal.