Research and Development of Orbital Debris Removal using Low Density Material

摘要

Currently, the danger due to debris in earth orbit is increasing.Furthermore, methods for the removal of such orbital debris have become the subject of attention.This paper proposes a concept for passive Orbital Debris Removal (ODR).In the passive ODR described in this research,a large area of polyimide foil is opened.Low earth orbit micro-debris decelerate due to their passing through the opened foil, and eventually reenter the atmosphere.In order to achieve efficient debris removal,as part of this research an unfolding mechanism has been invented that can open a large area of polyimide foil in low earth orbit.To demonstrate the effectiveness of this orbital debris removal concept,an event equivalent to the breaking up of a satellite by Chinese anti-satellite testing has been assumed. In order to give consideration to the perturbation of the orbital debris removal spacecraft, removal effectiveness was compared with regard to the direction of orbit injection,the effective cross sectional area,and orbit injection time as parameters.