Eleonora Botta receives NSF grant to model how tether systems could remove debris from low Earth orbit
BUFFALO, NY – University of Buffalo researcher Eleonora Botta is studying how to prevent space debris from colliding with each other or falling uncontrollably to Earth.
As an assistant professor of aerospace engineering, she recently received a National Science Foundation scholarship of $ 175,000 to study how best to use robotic restraint systems to contain some of the 27,000 debris NASA is tracking .
Many of these space cleaning systems require the use of nets – imagine a satellite shooting a net like Spiderman – to capture and control debris.
“The idea is that after a piece of space junk has been captured, it is pulled into a disposal path by the active spacecraft from which the tether is deployed,” says Botta. “In the case of objects in a low earth orbit, the disposal path would be such that the trapped debris penetrates back into the earth’s atmosphere and burns up in the earth’s atmosphere,” says Botta.
The idea is not new. Both Japan and the European Space Agency have launched satellites with similar missions. However, none have been found to be particularly effective. And given the Chinese 20-ton launcher that crashed on Earth in May, it’s easy to see why Botta’s work matters.
“One of the advantages of actively capturing and removing large pieces of debris is that their re-entry trajectory is controlled and can be chosen so that if a piece of debris survives re-entry, it will end up in the ocean with extremely little chance of causing casualties,” she says .
For the scholarship, Botta will use powerful computers to model all components of the robot holding system. This includes a chaser spaceship with sensors and actuators, controlled roll-up mechanisms, cables and a network as well as target and contact dynamics.
She will also focus on what happens after the debris is captured. This includes the control of the system as well as the debris it collects. The latter process – known as “de-tumbling” – essentially means gaining control of an out of control object in space.
In addition, Botta will work to develop simpler, potentially more cost-effective systems than the existing or proposed ones.
Comments are closed.