A preliminary study of space debris mitigation based on a swinging tether system

Abstract

Since the very beginning of sending satellites into space with Sputnik 1 in 1957, humankind has been repeatedly and nonchalantly sending more and more spacecrafts outside the atmosphere without caring at first the future repercussions of that. Space junk or debris are what the remains of all the inoperative missions are called. The rise in quantity is not only relevant in the field of space exploration, but is in the long run is a problem that would affect our daily lives and even the state of planet Earth. This is not an unaware problem, as many space agencies started handling this issue in an indirect way by making their space missions with extra shielded parts to be positive that no external debris will damage their missions. Moreover, recently some space debris detection methods have been developed, as well as space laws that recommends some extra steps in space missions that adds to the idea of prevention and to try and not add to the number of orbiting debris. A more direct approach is also discussed, where several debris removal solutions will be presented and at the end one of them is selected: the tether system. Thereafter, a schematic of the system will be presented, its equations of motion obtained, and the optimal point to release the debris into a lower orbit to disintegrate it will be the overall objective of this study. At the end, the initial conditions for the system will be added, and with that several graphs and conclusions will be discussed. Three of these initial conditions will be subjected to some iterations to see the degree of how the whole system is affected by those variations of the input parameters.

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura