Session
Session 12: Advanced Technologies 3
Abstract
A Brane Craft is a membrane spacecraft with solar cells, command and control electronics, communications systems, antennas, propulsion systems, attitude and proximity sensors, and shape control actuators as thin film structures manufactured on ~10 micron thick plastic sheets. It enables new missions that require low-mass spacecraft with exceptionally high delta-V such as active removal of orbital debris from Earth orbit (LEO).
An 80-gram mass Brane Craft deployed by the International Space Station could deorbit a debris object of at least 0.9 kg mass in a 2000 km altitude circular orbit with an inclination between 5o and 105o. Two to three weeks is needed to retrieve a debris object anywhere in LEO, once the Right Ascension of the Ascending Nodes (RAANs) of the initial and target orbits line up. Significantly more mass can be retrieved from lower orbits.
Thin-film solar cells and electronics will receive up to 10 megarads total integrated dose (TID) during a nominal 3-week long mission. Thin film Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) solar cells and thin film carbon nanotube and ZnO transistors have the required TID radiation tolerance. In addition, particle flux and penetration analyses showed that the propellant storage structure in a Brane Craft could be penetrated up to 30 times over a nominal mission. Nevertheless, the concept appears to be feasible, and could be implemented within a decade.
Presentation
Brane Craft: Phase 1 Study Results
A Brane Craft is a membrane spacecraft with solar cells, command and control electronics, communications systems, antennas, propulsion systems, attitude and proximity sensors, and shape control actuators as thin film structures manufactured on ~10 micron thick plastic sheets. It enables new missions that require low-mass spacecraft with exceptionally high delta-V such as active removal of orbital debris from Earth orbit (LEO).
An 80-gram mass Brane Craft deployed by the International Space Station could deorbit a debris object of at least 0.9 kg mass in a 2000 km altitude circular orbit with an inclination between 5o and 105o. Two to three weeks is needed to retrieve a debris object anywhere in LEO, once the Right Ascension of the Ascending Nodes (RAANs) of the initial and target orbits line up. Significantly more mass can be retrieved from lower orbits.
Thin-film solar cells and electronics will receive up to 10 megarads total integrated dose (TID) during a nominal 3-week long mission. Thin film Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) solar cells and thin film carbon nanotube and ZnO transistors have the required TID radiation tolerance. In addition, particle flux and penetration analyses showed that the propellant storage structure in a Brane Craft could be penetrated up to 30 times over a nominal mission. Nevertheless, the concept appears to be feasible, and could be implemented within a decade.
