GROUP PROJET FINAL REPORT

SATELLITE CAPTURE AND DE-ORBIT

MISSION

LEAD & CO-SUPERVISOR JAMES CAMPBELL

&
RUI CARDOSO

TARANJIT SINGH KUNDI (2232829)

DATE: 31/03/2023
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. ACKNWLEDGEMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. LIST OF NOTATIONS WITH UNITS ------------------------------------------------
4. INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. TOPIC RELATED CHAPTERS-----------------------------------------------------------------
RESULTS AND DISCUSSSION (INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION) -----------------
6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSSION (GROUP) ------------------------------------------------
7. CONCLUSIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER WORK---------------------------------------------------
9. REFERENCES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. APPENDIX 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Space debris mainly consist of man made objects that have completed their service
life and are not functional anymore but continue to float freely in earths orbit. These
objects could be anything from satellites, rocket stages, and other pieces of
hardware that have either been lost, abandoned or intentionally destroyed. Since the
space exploration began these space debris have continued to increase rapidly,
especially in recent times where launching satellites or other spacecrafts has
become easier and the rate of launch has also seen a rise with the development of
re-usable rockets. Thus, it seems possible that the hypothetical scenario of the
Kessler Syndrome can one day become our reality, where would witness a
cascading chain of collisions in the low Earth orbit which would lead to the formation
of an impenetrable barrier consisting of space debris making it extremely challenging
for us perform deep space exploration missions. This project is an initiative to
prevent the formation of space debris by making sure no dead satellite is left
unattended for longer time durations & must be de-orbited timely. However, this
project will only discuss about One web satellite and how the systems are developed
around their initiative of countering the issue of space debris.

The main and aims and objectives that were initially identified for our project of
“Satellite capture and deorbit mission” were presented in the project proposal, which
formed a pathway for the entire process and development of a concept that would
help us achieve the final objective. The primary objective of the mission was to
develop a design concept of a spacecraft/satellite that could perform rendezvous and
capture a dysfunctional satellite using the grappling fixture (developed by Altius
Space Machines) and de-orbiting it into the earths atmosphere to avoid formation of
space debris because of One web satellite. However, these aims and objectives also
had some conditions, which needed to be fulfilled to meet all the requirements of the
project. The conditions stated for the mission are as follows:

 Firstly, that the One web satellite with a launch mass of (150kg) is orbiting at
an altitude of 1200kms and have to be recovered from that orbit.
 Secondly that the satellites are pre-fitted with redundant systems which is
capable of de-orbiting the satellite using its own propulsion system after the
satellite has completed its service life. The concept we have to develop, is a
standby method to de-orbit a dead satellite in case the self-deorbiting system
fails to perform its given task.
 Another, condition was the satellite had to be de-orbited only by using that
grappling fixture which is pre-installed on the one web satellites.
 The concept has to be designed in a way that the mission would get
completed with the time span of 5 years.
 The primary criteria of the designing the concept spacecraft and the whole
mission, was to make it as cost efficient as possible.
The mission was to be designed keeping in mind the service life of the satellites,
which is 5 years, the failure rate of the satellite in the function to de-orbit itself.
However, none of their satellites have completed their service life, hence there is not
enough data on this parameter, but based on the redundant satellites manufactured
by one web and the system being simple which uses its own propulsion system to
perform a final burn with the limited amount of fuel left, the failure rate of the
satellites is not expected to be more than 3-5% of their total fleet of 618 operational
satellites as of 26 March 23.

With a new spark in the space exploration industry in the past decade, it has become
crucial to develop such space debris mitigation programs to avoid the inevitable
problem of space debris accumulation and prevent the theory of Kessler Syndrome
from becoming a reality and the fate of humankind. Many global agencies have been
formed, where many nations have taken a collaborative initiative to develop such
programs and concepts that can be deployed to perform the recovery of not only
dead satellites, but any other form or size of space derby that floats freely in the
earths orbit. On the other hand, many private industries have also done extensive
research and development in this area and are capable of providing the services to
de-orbit a satellite. Although, various companies have proposed their own design
and methods of de-orbiting a satellite/space debris, there lacks a globally accepted
and deployed methodology or agency that is responsible for monitoring the space
debris, performing recovery missions. Some of the government run programs are
ESA- Active debris removal, NASA’s Orbital debris program, while the UK space
agency has provided financial aid worth £4 million to its domestic companies to
design missions to clear the hazardous space debris.

On the other hand, following are the private aerospace agencies, which are actively
participating in the space debris removal & awareness initiative.

Company name Country of origin Space Debris Mission

Astro scale Japan De-orbiting & Removal.
Clear space Switzerland De-orbiting & Removal.
Northrop Grumman USA De-orbiting.
SpaceX USA De-orbiting.
Astro scale Europe UK De-orbiting & Removal.
Effective Space Solutions Israel De-orbiting.
D-Orbit Italy De-orbiting.
Ursa Space Systems USA Space Situational Awareness
Leo Labs USA Space Situational Awareness
Ex analytic Solutions USA Space Situational Awareness

The need to de-orbit dead satellites has given rise to development of new space
technologies to perform this task, and has also provided a new source of income as
the private agencies can develop missions or perform these activities for the
government organisations as well as the private companies that want to get access
to their services. As described in the introduction that the mission required us to
develop a cost effective platform that is capable of performing this mission. We
aimed on developing a platform that is made of lightweight materials to keep the
weight as low as possible, a smaller platform compared to the One web satellite and
other similar missions that have been developed before which exceed he mass of
175kgs, even more than the One web satellite. We aimed to make this service as
affordable as possible, cutting on the weight would save on the manufacturing cost
and material consumption, the launch of such a satellite would also be possible by
using smaller launch vehicles which would also save on the cost, lastly, lesser the
weight of the satellite, lesser is the amount of fuel required to augment the attitude of
the satellite while performing the mission.

In the pursuit of achieving the desired results, tasks were evenly distributed among
the group members for distributing the work load. The tasks were distribute as
various aspects of the mission, some which required extensive research to be
carried out and some of it required the used of analytical software like GMAT to run
the simulation of the entire mission. Out of the four members Mr Shyam Tanna was
given the task to carry out the simulation of the entire mission from launch to the
deorbiting of the satellite into the earths atmosphere, Mr. Vaibhav Nagdeve was
responsible for working on the propulsion system and making adequate calculations
of the thrust required to perform the mission, type of thrusters and fuel required was
made in discussion by him and Mr Shyam Tanna. Mr Nevil Polara was given the task
to research and develop a satellite capturing mechanism based around the Dog tag
grappling fixture, which is already fitted on the One web satellite.

While my responsibility was to do the look after the Structural and design aspects of
the satellite, deciding the materials which should be used to construct the satellite,
which components are needed to be installed on the satellite, what should be the
dimensions and the mass of the satellite which would be used to perform the
mission. Once I concluded on this data, it was shared with Mr. Shyam which was
useful for him to enter the mass of the satellite in GMAT where he could run the
simulation and verify that the data was appropriate to perform the mission and Mr
Vaibhav used the data to calculate the amount of thrust that will be required to
augment the attitude of the satellite and the amount of fuel required throughout the
mission by considering the dry mass and the launch mass of the satellite. The
dimensions, materials, components, and weight were decided considering the
mission requirements of keeping the spacecraft light weight, design specifications of
One web satellite and the design concepts of such previously designed small
satellites that were designed earlier, however, some of the data was considered
based on assumptions from previous designs, which were then verified by running
the simulation in GMAT.

One other responsibility that I undertook was planning the methodology of the
mission, which concludes how the mission will be performed, the chronology of
events throughout, from tracing the satellite that is dead and needs to be recovered
 to capturing it and de-orbiting it into the earths atmosphere where it incinerates. This
aspect of the project was done in collaboration with all the team members as
everyone took responsibility to come up with critical data about their own aspects of
the design which in contributed to designing the project methodology for the mission.

LITERATURE REVIEW

As per the agreed work distribution, I am focusing on the design of the

spacecraft required to accomplish the said mission. The design will start from
the basic structural components of the satellite, and further details and parts
will be added to the final design as we gain a better understanding of the
required components and materials that can be used to enhance the efficiency
of the retrieval vehicle.

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS USED FOR MANUFACTURING SATELLITES

Below listed are some of the structural materials used for the manufacturing
of satellites.

1.ALUMINIUM: Among conventional structural materials, aluminum is by far the

most common. A large variety of alloys exist, providing a broad range of such
characteristics as strength and weldability. Thus, for applications at moderate
temperatures in which moderate strength and a good strength-to-weight
ratio are desirable, aluminum is still often the material of choice. This
popularity is enhanced by ready availability and ease of fabrication. Several
surface-coating processes exist to allow the tailoring of surface characteristics
for hardness, emissivity, absorptivity, etc.

2.MAGNESIUM: It is often used for applications in which higher stiffness is

desired than can be provided by aluminum. It is somewhat more difficult to
fabricate and is more chemically active than aluminum, it requires a surface
coating for any extensive exposure to the atmosphere for which several
coatings exist. Environmental constraints in recent years have limited the
availability of certain desirable magnesium alloys containing zirconium.

3.STEEL: Steel, in particular, stainless steel is often used in applications requiring

higher strength or higher temperature resistance. A variety of steels can be
used, but stainless steel is often preferred because its use eliminates the
concern about rust and corrosion during the fabrication and test phase.
4.TITANIUM: It is a high-strength, lightweight structural material with excellent
high-temperature capability and exhibits good stiffness. Some alloys are
brittle, which tends to limit their application, but several alloys with
reasonable ductility exist. The use of titanium is limited majorly due to higher
cost, lower availability and fabrication complexity to applications that
particularly benefit from its special capabilities. Pressure vessels of various
types and external skin of high-speed vehicles are typical applications.

5.BERYLLIUM: It offers the highest stiffness of any naturally occurring material

along with low density, high strength and high-temperature tolerance and
good thermal conductivity. Beryllium has been used in limited applications
where its desired characteristics have been desired. The main limitation of
the more extensive use of this excellent material is toxicity. In bulk form,
beryllium metal is quite benign and can be handled freely. The dust of
beryllium, however, has very detrimental effects on the human respiratory
tract. This means that the machining and grinding operations are subject to
extensive safety measures to capture and contain dust and chips. This
renders normal fabrication methods unusable without resorting to these
intensive/expensive measures.

6.GRAPHITE-EPOXY: Is in very common use and may even have supplanted

fiberglass in the frequency of use. The use of high-strength and stiffness
graphite fiber in a matrix of epoxy or other polymer makes an excellent high-
strength structural material. Proper selection of the cloth and/or
unidirectional fibers offer the ability to tailor strength and stiffness directly
and to the desired levels to optimize it for the purpose. The low density of
graphite offers a weight advantage as well. High-temperature characteristics
are improved using graphite instead of glass, although the matrix is the final
limiting factor. An increasing number of high-temperature polymers are
available for high-temperature structures. In addition to graphite, Kevlar and
other high-strength fibers are increasingly used.

7.INCONEL ALLOYS: The Inconel family of alloys and other similar alloys based on
nickel, cobalt, etc. are used for high-temperature applications. A typical
 application is as a height shield in the vicinity of the rocket nozzle to protect
the lower-temperature components from thermal radiation or hot gas
recirculation. These alloys are of relatively high density, equal to that of steel
or greater so, weight can be a problem. However, Inconel lends itself to
processing into quite thin foils which allow it use as a shield, often in multiple
layers with a minimum mass penalty.

8.THERMOSET CARBON FIBERS: They are a type of high-performance fiber-

reinforced polymer (FRP) that is used in various applications such as
aerospace, automotive and industrial applications. These materials are made
by impregnating a reinforcing polymer, such as carbon, glass or aramid with a
thermosetting resin matrix, which is then cured under heat and pressure to
create a rigid, strong, flexible and lightweight composite material. One of the
key advantages of TCF is that they have a high strength-to-weight ratio, which
makes them ideal for use in structural components that require high stiffness,
strength, and durability. They can also be tailored during the manufacturing
process as per the specific performance requirements by tailoring the type,
orientation, and volume fraction of the fibers as well as the properties of the
resin matrix. There exist several types of TCF, each with its own unique
mechanical properties and advantages, some of the most common types
include:

i) Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP): It is a type of thermoset

composite fiber that uses carbon fibers as the reinforcing material and
a thermosetting resin matrix such as epoxy or polyester.

ii) Glass fiber reinforced polymer : It was the first-ever composite

material used for space structure and is still used the most. The matrix
material may be epoxy, phenolic, or other material, and the glass can
range from relatively low-quality fiberglass to highly processed quartz
fiber. It is desirable because of the relative ease with which complex
shapes can be fabricated. It also exhibits strength and offers the ability
to tailor strength and stiffness both in absolute value and direction in
the material by choice of fiber density and orientation.
iii)
New materials coming into use are mostly composites of various types,
although some new alloys have also appeared. Among the alloys, aluminum-
lithium is of considerable interest, because the addition of lithium results in
alloys of somewhat higher strength than familiar aluminum alloys, but having
equal or lower density. This material is already seeing extensive use in
commercial aviation and the most recent version of the space shuttle's
external tank.

High-temperature refractory materials have been available for many years but
have seen limited use because of high density, lack of ductility, cost, and other
factors. Tungsten, tantalum, and molybdenum fall into this category. These
materials are somewhat less available than they were some years ago. A great
many suppliers have dropped out of the field. This may in part be related to
the collapse of the commercial nuclear power industry in the United States.
One exception is niobium (formerly called columbium). This material is useful
to temperatures as high as 1300 K but has a density only slightly higher than
steel. It is available in commercial quantities. Like all refractory metals, it
oxidizes rapidly if heated in air, but a silicide coating offers substantial
protection in this environment.

Metal matrix composites involve the use of metal matrix, e.g., aluminum,
stiffened and strengthened by fibers of another metal or another nonmetallic
material. In aluminum, for example fibers of boron, silicon, carbide, and
graphite have been used. Some difficulties have been encountered, such as the
tendency of the molten aluminum to react with the graphite during the
manufacture of the composite.

The use of composite and new age materials can be inducted in the design of
such a spacecraft that will be designed to perform a single recovery mission,
which can significantly reduce the payload of the launch vehicle,
manufacturing cost of the vehicle and operating expenses of such missions.
Such spacecrafts, if used in tandem with re-usable launch vehicles with low
payload capacity sufficient to deliver such vehicles into the desired orbit can
make the removal of space debris more viable.
Following is a comparative chart for the masses of various materials used for
manufacturing of satellites: