Adaptive remediation of the space debris environment using feedback control
- Paper number
IAC-16,A6,IP,3,x33461
- Coauthor
Mr. Gian Luigi Somma, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Dr. Hugh G. Lewis, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Dr. Camilla Colombo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
- Year
2016
- Abstract
Satellite-based services pervade everyday life and generate a worldwide economy worth more than \$330 million per year through science, remote sensing and telecommunications. Within this context, space debris represents an increasing threat: an orbital object smaller than 1 centimetre can damage, disrupt or even destroy a satellite, resulting in loss of services and potential costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.\par\bigskip Since the beginning of the space age, the number of orbital debris has steadily increased, accounting now for more than 90\% of the current Low Earth Orbit (LEO) catalogued population. Moreover, even without ongoing launch activities, new explosions and collisions are likely to result in a continuing degradation of the environment, posing a growing threat to future space activities. To confront this threat, mitigation guidelines were established by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee; satellite manufacturers and operators are gradually implementing these measures, but the lack of a legally binding framework limits their widespread adoption.\par\bigskip In this work, a simple evolutionary model was developed to gain a better understanding of the benefits and the limitations of debris population control measures and their potential utility within space debris policies. The model is based on a set of first order differential equations, which describe the injection and removal rates in several altitude bands within the LEO protected region. Fragments are generated by explosions and collisions while objects are removed through Post Mission Disposal (PMD) and Active Debris Removal (ADR). Drag, the only natural sink mechanism, is computed through a piecewise exponential model of the average atmospheric density, assuming that all objects have circular orbits.\par\bigskip A controller, which mimics human-driven corrective actions arising from the review and adaptation of debris mitigation policies, is presented. In this work, the feedback controller is focused on remediation through ADR, and the number of actively removed debris is proportional to the number of objects in the orbital population.\par\bigskip Preliminary results show that a proportional control on PMD and ADR can reduce the number of removals needed for the current population to be maintained over a 200-year timeframe. Further analysis are performed to test the effectiveness of an extended multi-parametric proportional control in reducing the collision risk in the more crowded LEO regions. Moreover, the results of a parametric study will be shown in an effort to define a robust debris control strategy less sensitive to uncertainty sources that affect long-term predictions.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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