Ground Operation Experimental system and Operation Experiment of Space Debris with Lasers

Paper number

IAC-19,A6,IP,4,x52471

Author

Prof. Zizheng Gong, China, Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)

Coauthor

Dr. Wulin Yang, China, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)

Coauthor

Dr. Chuan Chen, China, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)

Coauthor

Dr. Ming Li, China, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)

Year

2019

Abstract

Handling the direction and magnitude of the additional velocity precisely generated by laser ablation is vital to active debris removal with space-based lasers. Additional velocity has been precisely measured by one-dimensional pendulum and rail with single laser shot, but it’s not enough to precisely depict the dynamic response of the laser ablation. In this paper, we developed a ground experiment suite for testing the continuous dynamical responses of laser ablation with moving object and six dimensional measurements. The suite is constructed by an 8J-pulsed laser, a 5cm & 30g cube, a tracking system and a 3D translation& 3D rotation measure system. 
Laser shots from the pulsed laser system are transmitted in the tracking system. Then it is focused on a tiny spot on the moving object to meet the ablation threshold in real time. Objects are moving around from 4.5m to 5.5m off the tracking system. Various spot radiuses ranging from 0.1mm-100mm can be obtained by changing the focusing length. Movement and rotation of the object are measured step by step by the measure system. The system is sensible for 2mm/s translation movement in x, y, z and 1.5°/s rotation along with the x, y and z. The results we calculated showed that additional velocity reached 1.3cm/s or rotation up to 15.7°/s can be occurred when a 30g moving object irradiated by the 8J pulsed laser. That means the suite can fulfill the demand of debris manipulation experiment.
Three type of the ground experiments are going be conducted :( 1) 6-dimensional additional velocity experiment with a single laser shot to understand the dynamic response. (2) Full-sized and spot-size irradiation under a single laser shot to study the difference on various irradiation situations. (3) Real-time and continuous laser shots on the moving object to show the whole steps of debris manipulation. These steps including object detecting, tracking, irradiation and assessment. 
With the ground experiment suite and experiments above, we will figure out the problems and answers related to the real situation and procedures when debris manipulation and active debris removal take into actions. These results will be submitted soon.

Abstract document

IAC-19,A6,IP,4,x52471.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-19,A6,IP,4,x52471.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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