Speakers
Description
To limit the risk of cascading collisions, we will need active debris removal missions to retrieve satellites that die before they can be deorbited. It is well understood that sudden fatal failures can cause a dead satellite to tumble uncontrollably, but even properly decommissioned satellites may start tumbling spontaneously from solar radiation pressure torque buildup, making capture extremely challenging in both cases. The availability of a detumbling/antitumbling device ensuring passive stabilization of dead satellites could greatly reduce the risk and cost of debris removal missions.
We describe a passive magnetic damping device attached to a satellite's structure, which dissipates the kinetic energy and angular momentum thanks to eddy currents resulting from differential angular rates between the satellite and the Earth’s magnetic field, eventually stopping the tumbling motion.
Detailed sizing and simulation activities have demonstrated that one such small and lightweight device is capable of detumbling a medium-to-large satellite within just a few weeks, while also preventing self-tumbling. The presentation reviews the current development status, from initial sizing to performance simulations and vibration tests of two prototypes. These steps pave the way for the final development stages of a universally available detumbling function that can be a game-changer for active debris removal.
