Less fuel strategies for space debris removal in Low Earth Orbit

Abstract

This paper proposes less fuel strategies for space debris removal. To mitigate the risk of space debris cost-efficiently, multi-rendezvous missions are under development. On the other hand, multi-rendezvous missions often require changing orbital planes of removal satellites, which requires a huge amount of ΔV. Therefore, this study focuses on exploiting the J₂ perturbation force as an auxiliary force and aims to establish maneuver rules that minimize ΔV consumption while maximizing the benefit of the J₂ perturbation. The J₂ perturbation equation is explored analytically, which clarifies whether the change in the semi-major axis or the inclination dominates the efficiency of the exploitation. A straightforward criterion is extracted which determines the efficient maneuver based on the initial inclination of the satellite.