Orbital service
I have been working in the rocket and space industry for over 5 years. And during this short period of time I managed to work on Sea-Launch, also to visit Land Launch and launch of the Antares launch company of Orbital. All this is beautiful and interesting, the work is full of impressions, contacts with new people and traveling around the world.
But in the whole history of "space exploration" by man, no one really thought about the objects that remain hanging around the Earth. This problem began to be considered only in the last 10 years and has not yet found a worthy solution to this issue.
I read a lot about possible methods of cleaning the orbit of 1–10 cm of small debris, of satellites that had completed their life, which are “hanging” on the geostationary, but I did not see anything worthwhile. Not only is geostationary clogged with inactive satellites and the so-called slot in orbit costs transcendental money, it is also possible that soon there will be no such slots at all. And small particles of space debris, which are mainly in low orbit, can harm not only satellites and the ISS, but also the lives of astronauts who go into outer space. (I by no means draw an analogy with the film “Gravity”, since this is complete nonsense, not a film, but this is my subjective opinion). In this regard, the space agencies of the world began to develop various ways to eliminate space debris.
There are quite a few different articles on this topic on the network and, I think, people who are interested in this have long been aware of possible ways to remove space debris.
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I would like to talk about theoretical development, which will allow to clear the geostationary orbit from non-operating satellites. As is known, from a distance of 30,000 kilometers from the satellite apparatus will “fall” for more than 100 years. If this happens naturally. Accordingly, he should give a certain impulse and trajectory along which he will come down and burn in the atmosphere, or tow him to the “burial” orbit. Of course, all this can be done with the help of existing accelerating units, which bring new satellites into orbit, leave in them a supply of fuel for the transition to an idle satellite and give it an impulse for de-orbiting. But this is not advisable for economic reasons.
It would be interesting to launch a space transport module that will use a plasma-ion engine (there is a working sample) and perform the role of a space scavenger. The service life of the engine after the tests was 10,000 hours, which will allow it to move successfully in a vacuum without air for a long time. And clear the “slots” for new satellites. Also in parallel to engage in refueling of satellites already in orbit to extend the operational period. Since it is known that many satellites retain the working equipment for signal transmission, but due to the fact that the fuel runs out on the ship, they lose their orientation and coverage area. Although they can serve for many more years.
This will be a new direction in the rocket and space industry, which will be called Orbital Service.
Such modules will be a kind of service centers that will extend the life of satellite devices, as well as clear the orbit of the satellites that have completed their life. Or correct the unsuccessfully derived satellites. I personally encountered such a case when one of the IntelSat satellites was put into orbit. They had to spend a lot of fuel to stabilize it in orbit.
It would be interesting to know your opinion on this matter. And who has any considerations in the development of this direction.
But in the whole history of "space exploration" by man, no one really thought about the objects that remain hanging around the Earth. This problem began to be considered only in the last 10 years and has not yet found a worthy solution to this issue.
I read a lot about possible methods of cleaning the orbit of 1–10 cm of small debris, of satellites that had completed their life, which are “hanging” on the geostationary, but I did not see anything worthwhile. Not only is geostationary clogged with inactive satellites and the so-called slot in orbit costs transcendental money, it is also possible that soon there will be no such slots at all. And small particles of space debris, which are mainly in low orbit, can harm not only satellites and the ISS, but also the lives of astronauts who go into outer space. (I by no means draw an analogy with the film “Gravity”, since this is complete nonsense, not a film, but this is my subjective opinion). In this regard, the space agencies of the world began to develop various ways to eliminate space debris.
There are quite a few different articles on this topic on the network and, I think, people who are interested in this have long been aware of possible ways to remove space debris.
')
I would like to talk about theoretical development, which will allow to clear the geostationary orbit from non-operating satellites. As is known, from a distance of 30,000 kilometers from the satellite apparatus will “fall” for more than 100 years. If this happens naturally. Accordingly, he should give a certain impulse and trajectory along which he will come down and burn in the atmosphere, or tow him to the “burial” orbit. Of course, all this can be done with the help of existing accelerating units, which bring new satellites into orbit, leave in them a supply of fuel for the transition to an idle satellite and give it an impulse for de-orbiting. But this is not advisable for economic reasons.
It would be interesting to launch a space transport module that will use a plasma-ion engine (there is a working sample) and perform the role of a space scavenger. The service life of the engine after the tests was 10,000 hours, which will allow it to move successfully in a vacuum without air for a long time. And clear the “slots” for new satellites. Also in parallel to engage in refueling of satellites already in orbit to extend the operational period. Since it is known that many satellites retain the working equipment for signal transmission, but due to the fact that the fuel runs out on the ship, they lose their orientation and coverage area. Although they can serve for many more years.
This will be a new direction in the rocket and space industry, which will be called Orbital Service.
Such modules will be a kind of service centers that will extend the life of satellite devices, as well as clear the orbit of the satellites that have completed their life. Or correct the unsuccessfully derived satellites. I personally encountered such a case when one of the IntelSat satellites was put into orbit. They had to spend a lot of fuel to stabilize it in orbit.
It would be interesting to know your opinion on this matter. And who has any considerations in the development of this direction.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/362431/
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