Current protection techniques leave spacecraft vulnerable to objects between approximately 1 and 10 cm. This paper summarizes the conceptual design of a space vehicle with the objective of shielding spacecraft from objects in this range of sizes, which was made to study the feasibility of such a method for spacecraft protection. The design was divided into three stages: first, using SPH simulations, a multi-layer shield capable of defeating large projectiles was designed; 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 has feasible dimensions for a spacecraft to be placed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and consists of an eight-layer shield with an umbrella-inspired deployment mechanism.


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    Title :

    Conceptual Design of an “Umbrella” Spacecraft for Orbital Debris Shielding


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Space Safety is No Accident ; Chapter : 5 ; 41-47


    Publication date :

    2015-01-01


    Size :

    7 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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