Related papers: Debris Engine: A Potential Thruster for Space Debr…
The Earth is strongly depleted in carbon compared to the dust in the ISM, implying efficient removal of refractory carbon before parent body formation. It has been argued that grains get rid of their carbon through oxidation and photolysis…
Mounting observational evidence indicates that cold circumstellar gas is present in debris disk systems. This work focuses on various dynamical processes that debris-disk gas may undergo. We review five mechanisms that can transport angular…
The author researched this new idea - support of flight by any aerial vehicles at significant altitude solely by the magnetic field of the planet. It is shown that current technology allows humans to create a light propulsion (AB engine)…
Accumulation of dust on the surface of solar panels reduces the amount of radiation reaching it. This leads to loss in generated electric power and formation of hotspots which would permanently damage the solar panel. This project aims at…
There are several differences between the planetary entry of space vehicles and that of asteroids. In this work we do investigate the applicability of classical methods and approaches developed for debris analysis to asteroid entry. In…
A possible mean to stabilize the LEO debris population is to remove each year 5 heavy debris like spent satellites or launchers stages from that space region. This paper investigates the DeltaV requirement for such a Space Debris Collecting…
An efficient algorithm is required to extract moving objects (asteroids, satellites, and space debris) from enormous data with advances in observational instruments. We have developed an algorithm, tracee, to swiftly detect points aligned…
The novel propellantless electric solar wind sail concept promises efficient low thrust transportation in the Solar System outside Earth's magnetosphere. Combined with asteroid mining to provide water and synthetic cryogenic rocket fuel in…
Interstellar comets arrive with key ingredients for deep-space platforms already in place: volatile inventories convertible to propellant, natural rotation providing continuous attitude variation, and hyperbolic trajectories that carry them…
Current spacecraft mass are mostly fuel, this is dictated by the lack of fueling stations in space and also by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation which defines the mass ratio needed to escape earths gravity. The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation…
Numerical simulations are at the center of predicting the space debris environment of the upcoming decades. In light of debris generating events, such as continued anti-satellite weapon tests and planned mega-constellations, accurate…
Large compressions of the magnetopause are proposed to occasionally result from temporary encounters of the magnetosphere with dust streams in interplanetary space. Such streams may have their origin in cometary dust tails or asteroids…
The main purpose of this work is to perform an analysis of realistic new trajectories for a robotic mission to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in order to demonstrate the great advantages related to the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD). The DFD is a…
The application of directed energy to spacecraft mission design is explored using rapid transit to Mars as the design objective. An Earth-based laser array of unprecedented size (10~m diameter) and power (100~MW) is assumed to be enabled by…
We assess the possibility of reducing the travel time of a crewed mission to Mars by examining four different propulsion methods and keeping the mass at departure under 2500 tonne, for a fixed architecture. We evaluated representative…
Giant planet atmospheres are thought to reflect the gas phase composition of the disk when and where they formed. However, these atmospheres may also be polluted via solid accretion or ice sublimation in the disk. Here, we propose a novel…
Beyond space exploration, the next critical step towards living and working in space requires developing a space economy. One important challenge with this space-economy is ensuring the low-cost transport of raw materials from one…
The Gravity Tractor (GT) is a fully controlled asteroid deflection concept using the mutual gravity between a robotic spacecraft and an asteroid to slowly accelerate the asteroid in the direction of the "hovering" spacecraft. Based on early…
Context: Since circumstellar dust in debris disks is short-lived, dust-replenishing requires the presence of a reservoir of planetesimals. These planetesimals in the parent belt of debris disks orbit their host star and continuously supply…
A technique by which a spacecraft can interact with flows of ionized gas in space (the solar wind or interstellar medium) to be accelerated to velocities greater than the wind velocity is explored. Inspired by the dynamic soaring maneuvers…