Uso da tecnologia da vela solar e das perturbações orbitais naturais para remoção de detritos espaciais

Abstract

In orbit of the Earth are located artificial satellites essential for various services that are used by our society, such as telecommunications, navigation, geolocation, weather forecasts and space research. However, since the beginning of space exploration, the space environment has been mostly populated by non-functional objects of various sizes. These objects are known as space debris or simply space junk. Debris causes spatial pollution and risks to space exploration and active orbiting satellites, and an uncontrolled fall of these objects can cause great harm to human lives. From this problem arose the interest in seeking a solution to mitigate the problem of space debris. In this work, the evolution of the orbital parameters of debris in the geostationary orbit (GEO) will be analyzed. In the dynamics will be considered the main disturbing forces, such as the direct solar radiation pressure, the perturbation of the third body and the flattening of the Earth. Solar radiation pressure (PRS) is the most relevant perturbation for objects with large mass area ratio. Knowing this, it will be considered the possibility of using Solar Sail technology coupled with the natural environmental perturbations that act in the orbit of the debris to cause a variation in the altitude of the GEO orbiting debris, thus providing the portrayed in the Earth’s atmosphere and consequently the destruction of that debris, or even expelling it into a graveyard orbit. The equations are presented as the disturbing potential, where this potential will be replaced in Lagrange’s planetary equations and numerically integrated via Maple software. Thus, through the numerical simulations performed are generated graphs of orbital parameters over time and diagrams, eccentricity versus perigee argument. It was possible to conclude that the solar radiation pressure acts strongly on debris in geostationary orbit allowing an increase in eccentricity, where such increase is proportional to the area/mass coefficient of the debris. This growth of the eccentricity enables the debris, in the perigee of its orbit, to approach the Earth’s surface in a short period of time, where the effect of atmospheric drag promotes the destruction of the debris. We show that it is possible to equip the debris with a solar sail in geostationary orbit to cause the debris to re-enter or send it to a graveyard orbit using natural perturbations. We also suggest that the new artificial satellites be designed with an attached Solar Sail so that at the end of its life the opening of that sail can ensure debris re-entry using natural perturbatios. The idea of using the solar sail is that the propulsion system used is the sun itself, a clean and abundant energy source, in contrast to the chemical propellants, for example, so we are contributing to sustainability in space.