Small Electric Propulsion Platform for Active Space Debris Removal

It is nowadays clear that future space access and activity sustainability is greatly endangered by the large amount of space debris populating the near-earth region. In the last few years, a number of different active debris removal (ADR) methods have been proposed and each of them may represent a valuable solution for space debris belonging to specific classes or types or orbiting in particular space regions. Regardless of the method identified as the most suitable, an ADR mission scenario can be thought as composed of different phases in which a deorbiting platform is in charge of approaching a target debris, bringing it to a lower altitude orbit and, in the case of a multiple-target mission, releasing it and chasing a second one. Considering the high total impulse typical of these kinds of missions, electric propulsion (EP) plays a key role in reducing the propellant mass consumption required for each maneuver and thus increasing the mass available to deorbit a relevant number of debris per mission. A low-power and low-cost EP system based on the Alta HT-100 Hall effect thruster is here considered with the aim of highlighting the advantages offered by this system for these kinds of missions.