Future spacecraft design will be affected by collisions with man-made debris orbiting the earth. Most of this orbital space debris comes from spent rocket stages. It is projected that the source of future debris will be the result of fragmentation of large objects through hypervelocity collisions. Orbiting spacecraft will have to be protected from hypervelocity debris in orbit. The options are to armor the spacecraft, resulting in increased mass, or actively removing the debris from orbit. An active space debris sweeper is described which will utilize momentum transfer to the debris through laser-induced ablation to alter its orbital parameters to reduce orbital lifetime with eventual entry into the earth's atmosphere where it will burn. The paper describes the concept, estimates the amount of velocity change (Delta V) that can be imparted to an object through laser-induced ablation, and investigates the use of a neutral particle beam for the momentum transfer. The space sweeper concept could also be extended to provide a collision avoidance system for the space station and satellites, or could be used for collision protection during interplanetary travel.


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    Titel :

    Nuclear-powered space debris sweeper


    Beteiligte:


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    01.10.1989



    Medientyp :

    Sonstige


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Nuclear-powered space debris sweeper

    METZGER, JOHN D. / LECLAIRE, RENE J. / HOWE, STEVEN D. et al. | AIAA | 1989


    Orbital debris sweeper and method

    Petro, Andrew J. | NTRS | 1991


    Laser debris sweeper for the Space Station Freedom

    Settecerri, T. J. / Beraun, J. E. / European Space Agency | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1993


    Orbital Debris Sweeper and Method

    Andrew J Petro | NTRS | 1991


    Semi-Active Orbital Debris Sweeper

    A. J. Petro | NTIS | 1990