Active Removal of Orbital Debris by Induced Hypervelocity Impact of Injected Dust Grains

摘要

Collisions of an active satellite with a small (1mm - cm) untrackable orbital debris can be mission ending. It has been recently established that we are at the tipping point for collisional cascade of larger objects to exponential growth of small orbital debris. This will make access to near-Earth space hazardous without first clearing the existing debris from this region. We present a concept for elimination of small debris by deploying micron scale dust to artificially enhance the drag on the debris. The key physics that makes this technique viable is the possibility of large momentum boost realized through hypervelocity dust/debris collision. By deploying high mass density micron scale dust in a narrow altitude band temporarily it is possible to artificially enhance drag on debris spread over a very large volume and force rapid reentry. The injected dust will also reenter the atmosphere leaving no permanent residue in space.