Exploitation of SRP-J2-phi Resonances for De-orbitation of Space Objects with Time-Variant Area-to-Mass Ratio

Paper number

IAC-21,C1,7,6,x64305

Author

Ms. Catherine Massé, Canada, McGill University

Coauthor

Prof. Inna Sharf, Canada, McGill University

Coauthor

Dr. Florent Deleflie, France, Observatoire de Paris

Year

2021

Abstract

The environmental and operational consequences of the growing spacecraft population in the LEO region are widely acknowledged of serious concern. Resonant orbits have been proposed as a means to speed up the de-orbitation of spacecraft at end-of-life and were investigated for this purpose by the ReDSHIFT team, as part of the Horizon 2020 project. It was shown that the manifest effect of the SRP-$J_2$ resonance on a spacecraft’s orbit eccentricity leads to accelerated re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, at low energy cost. In our previous work, we expanded the analysis carried out by the ReDSHIFT team on the SRP-$J_2$ resonance by considering a plate-like, instead of a spherical, spacecraft. We demonstrated that it is possible to generate what we refer to as the $\phi$-resonance of considerable strength for a plate spacecraft, in arbitrary orbit, by adopting a specific rotational motion of the spacecraft, i.e., by prescribing a time-variant area-to-mass ratio appropriately through controlled rotational motion.

In this paper, we build on these theoretical results and conduct an extensive numerical investigation of the SRP-$J_2$-$\phi$ resonance over the LEO region, covering altitudes from 400 km to 2000 km. The results are obtained by using the state-of-the-art attitude propagator, D-SPOSE, which offers high accuracy modeling of the atmospheric drag effects: these are of paramount importance to establishing a de-orbitation strategy. The results thus obtained are presented in the form of maps illustrating the achievable altitude decrease rate, as a function of the initial orbital parameters, to comprehensively depict the resonance dynamics and to highlight the capabilities and limitations of exploiting such a phenomenon for de-orbitation of spacecraft in LEO. A systematic approach to identify the optimal de-orbitation strategy based on the above-mentioned analysis is presented. We demonstrate the strategy for two distinct scenarios defined by a spacecraft initially on a circular orbit of, respectively, 600 km and 1,100 km altitude, with the associated effective area-to-mass ratios of 0.5 and 1 m$^2$/kg. The results for these two cases show that the exploitation of the SRP-$J_2$-$\phi$ resonance enables the de-orbitation of the spacecraft within the 25-year disposal guidelines.

To evaluate the practicality of the solution, an attitude control law is applied to the spacecraft to enforce the optimal de-orbitation plan. Propagations of the controlled spacecraft subject to SRP, $J_2$ and atmospheric drag accelerations as well as torques are carried out with D-SPOSE and the energy cost estimates are provided.

Abstract document

IAC-21,C1,7,6,x64305.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-21,C1,7,6,x64305.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.