Efficiency Improving Guidance for Detumbling of Space Debris Using Thruster Plume Impingement

This paper proposes a guidance approach for detumbling space debris using thruster plume impingement. It is difficult to capture rapidly rotating space debris. Previous studies have revealed the feasibility of reducing the rotational speed of such large debris as a rocket body or satellite. However, no study has presented concrete guidance during thruster plume impingement. This paper proposes an approach to rate damping from a e/i vector separated ellipsoidal trajectory. This trajectory is a safe trajectory with a low risk of collision in contingency cases. Moreover, it offers higher efficiency in reducing the rotational motion of a debris because the debris removal satellite flies around the debris and can inject a thruster plume from various directions. Conversely, if the debris removal satellite tries to damp the rotation from V-bar, the torque applied to the debris has strong directional sensitivity, thereby making it difficult in the worst case to damp the rotation from V-bar. Both situations were simulated and compared to verify the validity of the proposed approach. The torque and force applied to the debris were obtained by interpolating a predefined torque/force database. This database was obtained by conducting more than 900 cases of high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, changing the direction, distance, and point of thruster plume impingement. The simulation results revealed that rotation of the debris was reduced using the proposed approach. Rate damping from the e/i vector separated trajectory applied larger torque on the debris than those from V-bar. Hence, the rotation was reduced with less fuel and a shorter time. In addition, the e/i vector separated trajectory has less risk of collision with space debris even in a contingency case as compared to the V-bar hold. Thus, a safe and efficient rate damping approach to debris rotation was proposed, and will contribute to the probability of success for active debris removal missions.