Electric Propulsion Subsystem Optimization for “Ion Beam Shepherd” Missions

What is it about?

The Ion beam shepherd (IBS) is a promising technique for removing space debris from over-populated orbits around the Earth. This is achieved by pointing the hypersonic plume of an electric thruster towards the space junk to be repositioned, thus transferring a force to it, through the effect of the impacting plume ions. In order to maintain formation flying (fixed distance between spacecraft and debris object), another electric thruster is needed on the other side of the spacecraft, thrusting in the opposite direction. This paper deals with the optimization of the electric propulsion sub-system of an Ion Beam Shepherd spacecraft. Such an optimization permits to maximize the efficiency of this active debris removal technique, for a given available spacecraft power.

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Why is it important?

Space debris is becoming a huge problem for the future exploitation of certain Earth orbits, such as the low Earth orbits or the geostationary orbits. As the number of space debris objects increases, due to satellites reaching the end-of-life or in-orbit explosions, such an exploitation becomes more and more costly and risky. This demands that a proper international legislation be redacted and accepted by all parties to control the future exploitation of such orbits (i.e. urging an end-of-life relocation of new satellites into graveyard or naturally decaying orbits). Additionally, existing space junk can be removed with active debris removal techniques, such as the Ion Beam Shepherd. Studying the feasibility and improving the efficiency of such techniques is a fundamental milestone to reach, before starting to actively control the space debris population.

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