Speaker
Description
Since the beginning of the space era, the number of debris generated in low Earth orbit (LEO) has been increasing. ESA statistics show there are an estimated 130 million objects in the 1 mm to 1 cm size classed as lethal non-trackable debris (with the potential to damage key infrastructure) and more than 2,700 non-functioning satellites. Analysis has shown that stabilising the space debris population can only be achieved by maintaining high PMD (post mission disposal) rates on future constellation satellites, plus removing a set number of defunct satellites per year from orbit, termed Active Debris Removal (ADR).
After a successful phase A study, the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) committed in 2022 to continue funding towards a mission to remove two defunct pieces of UK-owned debris with a multi-client removal servicer. The mission, due for launch in 2026, needs to capture and remove unprepared debris (satellites with no existing preparation, docking plate or servicing interface). Astroscale was selected by the UKSA to continue its work up to PDR, which shall be concluded by end of 2023. The paper focuses on Astroscale’s mission — named COSMIC (Cleaning Outer Space Mission through Innovative Capture). Astroscale’s consortium includes 10 partner organisations including MDA, Thales Alenia Space, Nammo, GMV, Raytheon, among others, responsible for different parts of the space, ground and launch segments.
COSMIC is a variant of Astroscale’s ELSA-M mission, which has been in development for 5 years under the ESA Sunrise programme, under prime OneWeb. While ELSA-M is developed to enable magnetic servicing to prepared clients, COSMIC will enable robotic servicing to unprepared clients. The mission requires adaptations to several areas, notably the capture mechanism (inclusion of a robotic arm), GNC (guidance, navigation and control) and flight software. The paper will explore the way in which heritage and best operational practice can be leveraged from ELSA-M (and our precursor demonstration mission, ELSA-d) and will address the mission design, concept of operations (ConOps), additional mission functionalities/necessary adaptations, the resulting roles of partners in the consortium and the anticipated commercialisation axes. Indeed, the innovative ADR offer permitted by the “COSMIC” mission shall allow Astroscale to capitalise on the company-wide products catalogue and extend its set of end-to-end Space Sustainability services.
COSMIC promises to be the first UK funded debris removal mission in space, one of the cornerstone ADR missions in Europe and will be a worldwide breakthrough mission in the field of IOS as well. The development, production and integration of the innovative robotics solutions (and the associated Close Proximity flight and ground software assets) proposed in the COSMIC mission represents for Europe the steppingstone towards more advanced IOS services. To cite but a few, In-Orbit Refuelling, On-Demand Space Situational Awareness as well as In-orbit Repair/Upgrade or In-Orbit Manufacturing/Assembly of LEO assets would be facilitated by the innovations permitted by the COSMIC mission. In order to increase versatility of our service set, the COSMIC spacecraft is designed with refuellability in mind. Internal and external prospects (both European and Non-European) highlighted already the criticality of these servicers to have the capacity of being refuelled as well as refuelling client spacecraft. COSMIC is an enabler for the future space circular economy and the ever-increasing demand in space logistics.
Keywords: Active Debris Removal, ELSA-M, ELSA-D, COSMIC, Close Proximity Operations, In-Orbit Servicing
