Conceptual design of a space vehicle for orbital debris protection

Abstract

As the orbital debris environment deteriorates, the threat to spacecraft is becoming increasingly significant. Additionally, current protection techniques leave them vulnerable to objects between 1 and 10 cm. The objective for this project was to design a “defender” space vehicle capable of shielding spacecraft from objects in this range of sizes. The design was divided into three stages: first, using SPH simulations, a shield capable of defeating large projectiles was designed based on existing shield types; next, a deployment mechanism that allowed the shield to be stored compactly for launch was designed and analyzed using a vector-based kinematics and dynamics method; finally, a general design of the service module was made. The final design consisted of an eight-layer shield with an umbrella-inspired deployment mechanism. It was 3 m in diameter by 7 m long with the shield folded and had a mass of 5100 kg; proving the feasibility of this measure.