58 / 60
WP11 – APPLICATIONS
OrbitClean Project: Cleaning Low Earth Orbit aerospace
debris
(WP11 – Applications)
Michael LHERBETTE - Nicolas BURGER - Ugo BLANDIN
Université de Technologie de Troyes
The aim of the project is to de-orbit debris
located in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In
this study, the focused debris is the French
Satellite Astérix A-1 assimilated to an
Aluminium sphere of 58 cm diameter and
42 kg.
As soon as the VSH reaches 100 km
(maximum of its trajectory), the module will
be ejected. A thruster with a hybrid motor
will take over to position OrbitClean on the
debris trajectory.
An electrodynamic tether (a system using
the magnetic field of the Earth to slowly
decrease the kinetic energy of the module)
will be attached on the main module. It will
help to maintain the module on the right
orbit until it comes into contact with the
debris. This tether will be used to de-orbit
the main module OrbitClean as soon as
one considers the mission completed.
Another electrodynamic tether will be fixed
on the debris with an adhesive system.
This auxiliary module will serve to de-orbit
the debris when it will be set up. Without
any external parameters, the debris will be
de-orbited in more than hundred years but
with this technique, the study shows that it
would be possible to do so in less than a
year.
The treatment of the debris was
investigated as well in order to choose
properly the right material for the module
OrbitClean. Indeed, it would be appreciable
to have a system that can be used again
when its mission is completed. As a result,
the module must not be damaged during its
atmosphere re-entry. Regarding the debris,
the study has shown it will be destroyed
during this process, it cannot be recycled.
This project would allow to reduce the
number of space debris around the Earth
to diminish the possible collisions between
space systems. As an original idea, we
mentioned the possibility to load cameras
in our module to relay the module
launching and the approach of the debris.
The passengers would have the
opportunity to see the OrbitClean project in
work during their tourist fly.