Capturing orbital debris : a modular mission architecture and optimization

Abstract

In the near-Earth space environment, orbital debris is becoming a larger concern as the space in commercial, defense, and scientific orbits become more crowded. These objects often provide security concerns for newly launched satellites and those currently in operation. The interest of this paper is to analyze the state of the debris clouds, propose an optimized set of requirements for a modular based design, and to present the incentive for removal of dead objects. The analysis for this research was done in MATLAB using two line element datasets for orbital propagation, engineering optimization algorithms, and historical design attempts. The end goal being to show the advantages of modular, reusable infrastructure that is capable of rendezvousing with and disposing of multiple objects of interest.