Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Geomagnetic Energy Effect for LEO Debris Deorbiting

Abstract

Space debris is increasingly problematic and needs active removal, especially in low Earth orbits (LEO). Paying for the vast cost of the disposal of debris from the situation is still inevitable even though pivotal technical hurdles have been overcome with the growing maturity of capturing and deorbiting methods. To this end, a novel geomagnetic energy (GME) propellant approach is firstly proposed to propel a spinning tethered spacecraft for LEO debris deorbiting, without the use of expendable fuel and a large-length tether. In this method, the time-cumulative effect of the interacted torque of the spacecraft’s electromagnet and geomagnetic field is used to accelerate the rotating system for GME storage, and the space momentum exchange from the angular momentum of system to the linear momentum of debris is introduced to deorbit the debris for GME release. Next, an on-orbit directional GME storage mechanism is built, and the corresponding two optimal strategies are put forward. Both theoretical and simulation results demonstrate that GME can be stored in the expected direction on any inclined LEO below 1000 km. Deorbiting kg-level debris can be accomplished within several orbital periods with the existing magnetorquer technology. Finally, proof-of-principle experiments of the GME effect are performed and elementarily validate the LEO GME utilization in space.