A cooperative multi-satellite mission for controlled active debris removal from low Earth orbit

This paper presents the concept of operations and preliminary design of a multi-satellite mission for the active removal of large pieces of debris from low Earth orbit. The mission consists of a mothership minisatellite, that carries six nanosatellites. The mothership acquires a relative orbit of a few kilometers with respect to the piece of orbital debris of interest and determines the attitude state of the debris and good docking locations for the nanosatellites. The nanosatellites deploy sequentially and dock with the piece of debris. Once all the nanosatellites are docked with the debris they cooperatively perform its structural analysis to determine safe maneuvering profiles for its detumble and deorbit. The mothership then docks with the piece of debris and applies maneuvers to deorbit it. Systems engineering budgets have been determined for the mass and propellant and a preliminary mission cost has been estimated. They are presented together with the functional architectures of each spacecraft and the results of mission design obtained with the Systems Tool Kit.