Session
Session II: Advanced Concepts I
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) group funded a concept study for an active membrane spacecraft to cost-effectively remove kilogram-class orbital debris in the spring of 2016. This Phase I effort showed that an 81-gram mass, 1-square meter Brane Craft (short for membrane spacecraft) with a thickness of only 50 microns could deorbit up to 0.9-kg of orbital debris from anywhere in low Earth Orbit (LEO; altitudes less than 2000-km). Removing 5,000 1-kg class debris objects from LEO would cost at least 2 billion USD using CubeSats, while fabrication, testing, launch, and operations costs would be at least an order-of-magnitude lower using Brane Craft. That would leave close to 1.8 billion USD for non-recurring costs to develop this new type of spacecraft.
The Phase II effort started in 2017 to initiate technology development on key components, subsystems, and systems. To date, this effort has demonstrated radiation-hard, thin film, flexible ZnO transistors on Kapton, and is now focusing on logic gates and sensors that can survive in the harshest radiation regions of LEO for a month without any physical shielding. Additional tasks include demonstrating thin film actuators for membrane curvature control, developing robust thin-film computing networks that can handle 50 or more micrometeoroid impacts per square meter of membrane per month, performing higher-fidelity mission analyses for the LEO orbital debris removal mission, and analyzing cis-lunar and interplanetary applications for Brane Craft that take advantage of its unprecedented 16 km/s delta-V (deltaV) capability.
The Brane Craft Phase II Program: Redefining Spacecraft Design and Applications
Utah State University, Logan, UT
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) group funded a concept study for an active membrane spacecraft to cost-effectively remove kilogram-class orbital debris in the spring of 2016. This Phase I effort showed that an 81-gram mass, 1-square meter Brane Craft (short for membrane spacecraft) with a thickness of only 50 microns could deorbit up to 0.9-kg of orbital debris from anywhere in low Earth Orbit (LEO; altitudes less than 2000-km). Removing 5,000 1-kg class debris objects from LEO would cost at least 2 billion USD using CubeSats, while fabrication, testing, launch, and operations costs would be at least an order-of-magnitude lower using Brane Craft. That would leave close to 1.8 billion USD for non-recurring costs to develop this new type of spacecraft.
The Phase II effort started in 2017 to initiate technology development on key components, subsystems, and systems. To date, this effort has demonstrated radiation-hard, thin film, flexible ZnO transistors on Kapton, and is now focusing on logic gates and sensors that can survive in the harshest radiation regions of LEO for a month without any physical shielding. Additional tasks include demonstrating thin film actuators for membrane curvature control, developing robust thin-film computing networks that can handle 50 or more micrometeoroid impacts per square meter of membrane per month, performing higher-fidelity mission analyses for the LEO orbital debris removal mission, and analyzing cis-lunar and interplanetary applications for Brane Craft that take advantage of its unprecedented 16 km/s delta-V (deltaV) capability.
