As the orbital debris environment deteriorates, the threat to spacecraft is becoming increasingly significant. Additionally, current protection techniques leave them vulnerable to objects between 1 and 10 cm. The objective for this project was to design a “defender” space vehicle capable of shielding spacecraft from objects in this range of sizes. The design was divided into three stages: first, using SPH simulations, a shield capable of defeating large projectiles was designed based on existing shield types; next, a deployment mechanism that allowed the shield to be stored compactly for launch was designed and analyzed using a vector-based kinematics and dynamics method; finally, a general design of the service module was made. The final design consisted of an eight-layer shield with an umbrella-inspired deployment mechanism. It was 3 m in diameter by 7 m long with the shield folded and had a mass of 5100 kg; proving the feasibility of this measure. ; Outgoing


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    Conceptual Design of an Orbital Debris Collector

    P. Odonoghue / B. Brenton / E. Chambers et al. | NTIS | 1991


    Conceptual design of an orbital debris collector

    Odonoghue, Peter / Brenton, Brian / Chambers, Ernest et al. | NTRS | 1991



    Conceptual design of an Orbital Debris Defense System

    Bedillion, Erik / Blevins, Gary / Bohs, Brian et al. | NTRS | 1994


    Conceptual Design of an Orbital Debris Defense System

    E. Bedillion / G. Blevins / B. Bohs et al. | NTIS | 1994