Related papers: Removing Orbital Debris with Lasers
Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are increasingly proposed for communication and in-orbit computing, achieving low-latency global services. However, their sustainability remains largely unexamined. This paper investigates the carbon…
The vast majority of the orbital population today is unobservable and untracked because of their small size. These lethal non-trackable objects will only become more numerous as more payloads and debris are launched into orbit and increase…
Debris belts on the periphery of planetary systems, encompassing the region occupied by planetary orbits, are massive analogues of the Solar system's Kuiper belt. They are detected by thermal emission of dust released in collisions amongst…
Currently the only method to establish the prevalence of particles, space debris or meteoroids, sized between 1 micrometre and a few centimetres, in Earth orbit is by instruments or witness plates dedicated to in-situ detection. Derived…
The escalating accumulation of orbital debris threatens the sustainability of space operations, necessitating active removal solutions that overcome the limitations of current fuel-dependent methods. To address this, this study introduces a…
Large scale manned space flight within the solar system is still confronted with the solution of two problems: 1. A propulsion system to transport large payloads with short transit times between different planetary orbits. 2. A cost…
In recent years (2000-2021), human-space activities have been increasing faster than ever. More than 36000 Earth' orbiting objects, all larger than 10 cm, in orbit around the Earth, are currently tracked by the European Space Agency (ESA).…
We propose two algorithms to provide a full preliminary orbit of an Earth-orbiting object with a number of observations lower than the classical methods, such as those by Laplace and Gauss. The first one is the Virtual debris algorithm,…
Like any industry, space activities generate pressures on the environment and strives towards more sustainable activities. A consensus among the European industrial stakeholders and national agencies in the Space sector is emerging on the…
We consider sampling and detection strategies for solar illuminated space debris. We argue that the lowest detectable debris cross section may be reduced by 10-100x by analysis of stacks of image frames collected at high rates rather than…
There is growing demand for satellite swarms and constellations for global positioning, remote sensing and relay communication in higher LEO orbits. This will result in many obsolete, damaged and abandoned satellites that will remain…
Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites has brought about significant improvements in wireless communications, characterized by low latency and reduced transmission loss compared to geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites. Ultra-dense LEO satellites…
With the boost in the number of spacecraft launches in the current decades, the space debris problem is daily becoming significantly crucial. For sustainable space utilization, the continuous removal of space debris is the most severe…
We present a design concept for a space engine that can continuously remove the orbit debris by using the debris as a propellant. Space robotic cleaner is adopted to capture the targeting debris and to transfer them into the engine. Debris…
High contrast imaging searches for exoplanets have been conducted on 2.4-10 m telescopes, typically at H band (1.6 microns) and used exposure times of ~1 hr to search for planets with semi-major axes of > ~10 AU. We are beginning to plan…
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) proposes to retrieve a near-Earth asteroid and position it in a lunar distant retrograde orbit (DRO) for later study, crewed exploration, and ultimately resource exploitation. During the Caltech Space…
Laser propulsion has been proposed for relativistic interstellar flights, but it faces the significant challenge of requiring extremely powerful laser radiation due to the inherently low momentum transfer between the beam and the sail. The…
With the rapid increase in the number of Anthropogenic Space Objects (ASOs), Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is facing significant congestion, thereby posing challenges to space operators and risking the viability of the space environment for varied…
Proposals for ground-based laser remediation of space debris rely on the creation of appropriately directed ablation-driven impulses to either divert the fragment or drive it into an orbit with a perigee allowing atmospheric capture. For a…
Various proposed space elevators may bypass the financial and environmental limits on rocket technology, but all have their own problems. A Low-Earth-Orbit, LEO, rotovator-based space-elevator version called 'sling-on-a-ring' may overcome…