Session
Technical Poster Session 5
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
As more spacecraft use electric propulsion for altitude change, constellation management, and end-of-life disposal, attention is being given to other use-cases such as debris avoidance. While the growing population of all-electric GEO satellites and all-electric LEO megaconstellation satellites have demonstrated successful collision avoidance to date, they either operate in orbits with a smaller debris population (e.g., the GEO satellites) or have power budgets scaled to support high communications throughput which can be applied to propulsion systems as needed[1]. There has been doubt expressed that small spacecraft of more limited power supplies can host electric propulsion systems with sufficient thrust to enable the rapid orbit changes required for debris avoidance in LEO. In this work we use data from public sources on orbit conjunctions and conservative assumptions of propulsion system capability to illustrate the ability of properly scaled propulsion systems to evade debris objects on short notice.
Using Space Domain Awareness Tools and Electric Propulsion to Evade Space Debris
Utah State University, Logan, UT
As more spacecraft use electric propulsion for altitude change, constellation management, and end-of-life disposal, attention is being given to other use-cases such as debris avoidance. While the growing population of all-electric GEO satellites and all-electric LEO megaconstellation satellites have demonstrated successful collision avoidance to date, they either operate in orbits with a smaller debris population (e.g., the GEO satellites) or have power budgets scaled to support high communications throughput which can be applied to propulsion systems as needed[1]. There has been doubt expressed that small spacecraft of more limited power supplies can host electric propulsion systems with sufficient thrust to enable the rapid orbit changes required for debris avoidance in LEO. In this work we use data from public sources on orbit conjunctions and conservative assumptions of propulsion system capability to illustrate the ability of properly scaled propulsion systems to evade debris objects on short notice.
