A Concept For Elimination Of Small Orbital Debris

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to eliminate small orbital debris by injecting micron-scale dust to artificially increase drag, enabling controlled deorbiting while minimizing impact on active satellites.

Contribution

It introduces a concept for debris removal using dust injection to enhance drag, offering a potentially effective and satellite-safe debris mitigation technique.

Findings

Dust injection can significantly accelerate debris deorbiting.

The method minimally affects active satellites due to low dust density.

Controlled dust layers can sweep debris from orbit effectively.

Abstract

A concept for forced reentry of small orbital debris with characteristic dimension ~ 10 cm from the highly populated sun synchronous orbit by injecting micron scale dust grains to artificially enhance drag is discussed. The drag enhancement is most effective when dust grains counter rotate with respect to the debris resulting in hypervelocity dust/debris impacts. While the natural drag on small debris with ballistic coefficient ~ 5 kg/m2 in orbits with perigee above 900 km is negligible, it is sufficient to decay the orbit of the injected dust grains at a significant rate. This offers a unique opportunity to synchronize the rates of descent of the dust and debris to create a sweeping (snow-plow-like) effect on the debris by a descending narrow dust layer. The dust density necessary to de-orbit small debris is sufficiently low such that the orbits of active satellites which have larger ballistic coefficients are minimally affected. If deemed necessary, contact of the injected dust with active satellites may be avoided by maneuvering the satellite around the narrow dust layer.