Optimization of End-Of-Life Disposal Maneuvers for Highly Eccentric Orbits

Merz, Klaus; Lemmens, Stijn; Funke, Quirin; Frey, Stefan

doi:10.2514/6.2016-5513

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In this sense, however, the time within which the orbit stability has been verified becomes an important parameter as the orbit may de-stabilize afterwards (Daquin et al, 2016). On the other side, it must be noted that re-entry need to be carefully designed according to casualty risk constraints on ground (Merz et al, 2015). This section will exploit the findings from the previous Sections to design the end-of-life disposal for XMM-Newton mission by enhancing the effect of the natural dynamics or lunisolar and J 2 perturbation.…”

Section: Re-entry or Graveyard Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Evolution of Highly-Elliptical Orbits: Luni-Solar Perturbation Effects for Stability and Re-entry

Colombo

2019

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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This paper investigates the long-term evolution of spacecraft in Highly Elliptical Orbits (HEOs). The single averaged disturbing potential due to luni-solar perturbations, zonal harmonics of the Earth gravity field is written in mean Keplerian elements. The double averaged potential is also derived in the Earth-centered equatorial system. Maps of long-term orbit evolution are constructed by measuring the maximum variation of the orbit eccentricity to identify conditions for quasi-frozen, long-lived libration orbits, or initial orbit conditions that naturally evolve toward re-entry in the Earth's atmosphere. The behavior of these long-term orbit maps is studied for increasing values of the initial orbit inclination and argument of the perigee with respect to the Moon's orbital plane. In addition, to allow meeting specific mission constraints, quasi-frozen orbits can be selected as graveyard orbits for the end-of-life of HEO missions, in the case re-entry option cannot be achieved due to propellant constraints. On the opposite side, unstable conditions can be exploited to target Earth re-entry at the end-of-mission.

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Section: Re-entry or Graveyard Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Evolution of Highly-Elliptical Orbits: Luni-Solar Perturbation Effects for Stability and Re-entry

Colombo

2019

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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“…ESA operators manoeuvred INTEGRAL in 2015 such that it will perform a safe re-entry in 2029. The optimal manoeuvre design to enhance the effect of lunisolar perturbations [17,6] was used as starting point for the definition of the re-entry trajectory sequence [46].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a sustainable exploitation of the geosynchronous orbital region

Gkolias

Colombo

2019

Celest Mech Dyn Astr

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In this work the orbital dynamics of Earth satellites about the geosynchronous altitude are explored, with primary goal to assess current mitigation guidelines as well as to discuss the future exploitation of the region. A thorough dynamical mapping was conducted in a high-definition grid of orbital elements, enabled by a fast and accurate semi-analytical propagator, which considers all the relevant perturbations. The results are presented in appropriately selected stability maps to highlight the underlying mechanisms and their interplay, that can lead to stable graveyard orbits or fast re-entry pathways. The natural separation of the long-term evolution between equatorial and inclined satellites is discussed in terms of post-mission disposal strategies. Moreover, we confirm the existence of an effective cleansing mechanism for inclined geosynchronous satellites and discuss its implications in terms of current guidelines as well as alternative mission designs that could lead to a sustainable use of the geosynchronous orbital region.

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“…While end-of-life (EOL) disposal options are well established for missions in LEO (atmospheric decay) and GEO (near circular graveyards), existing mitigation guidelines do not fully regulate the whole, usable circumterrestrial orbital space, such as high-eccentricity science missions (HEO); e.g., NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) (Williams, 2012) and ESA's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) (Eismont et al, 2003). The nonnegligible collision risks posed by these LEO-GEO transiting spacecraft has motivated both theoretical study and practical implementation (Armellin et al, 2015;Colombo et al, 2015;Merz et al, 2015). Even for the, seemingly more simple, inclined, nearly circular orbits of the navigation satellites, no official guidelines exist, and recent analyses have shown that the problem is far too complex to allow of an adoption of the basic geosynchronous graveyard strategy (Rosengren et al, 2015;Daquin et al, 2016;Celletti et al, 2016;Gkolias et al, 2016;Rosengren et al, 2017;Skoulidou et al, 2017) The precarious state of the four navigation constellations, perched on the threshold of instability, makes it understandable why past efforts to define stable graveyard orbits, especially in the case of Galileo,3 were bound to fail.…”

Section: The Cataloged Space Debrismentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamical cartography of Earth satellite orbits

Rosengren

Skoulidou

Tsiganis

et al. 2019

Advances in Space Research

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We have carried out a numerical investigation of the coupled gravitational and non-gravitational perturbations acting on Earth satellite orbits in an extensive grid, covering the whole circumterrestrial space, using an appropriately modified version of the SWIFT symplectic integrator, which is suitable for long-term (120 years) integrations of the non-averaged equations of motion. Hence, we characterize the long-term dynamics and the phase-space structure of the Earth-orbiter environment, starting from low altitudes (400 km) and going up to the GEO region and beyond. This investigation was done in the framework of the EC-funded ''ReDSHIFT" project, with the purpose of enabling the definition of passive debris removal strategies, based on the use of physical mechanisms inherent in the complex dynamics of the problem (i.e., resonances). Accordingly, the complicated interactions among resonances, generated by different perturbing forces (i.e., lunisolar gravity, solar radiation pressure, tesseral harmonics in the geopotential) are accurately depicted in our results, where we can identify the regions of phase space where the motion is regular and long-term stable and regions for which eccentricity growth and even instability due to chaotic behavior can emerge. The results are presented in an ''atlas" of dynamical stability maps for different orbital zones, with a particular focus on the (drag-free) range of semimajor axes, where the perturbing effects of the Earth's oblateness and lunisolar gravity are of comparable order. In some regions, the overlapping of the predominant lunisolar secular and semi-secular resonances furnish a number of interesting disposal hatches at moderate to low eccentricity orbits. All computations were repeated for an increased area-to-mass ratio, simulating the case of a satellite equipped with an on-board, area-augmenting device. We find that this would generally promote the deorbiting process, particularly at the transition region between LEO and MEO. Although direct reentry from very low eccentricities is very unlikely in most cases of interest, we find that a modest ''delta-v" (DV ) budget would be enough for satellites to be steered into a relatively short-lived resonance and achieve reentry into the Earth's atmosphere within reasonable timescales (50 years).

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Optimization of End-Of-Life Disposal Maneuvers for Highly Eccentric Orbits

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Long-Term Evolution of Highly-Elliptical Orbits: Luni-Solar Perturbation Effects for Stability and Re-entry

Long-Term Evolution of Highly-Elliptical Orbits: Luni-Solar Perturbation Effects for Stability and Re-entry

Towards a sustainable exploitation of the geosynchronous orbital region

Dynamical cartography of Earth satellite orbits

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