Course: Preliminary Spacecraft Design (for BS in Aerospace Engineering)
Group: 8 (I was Project Manager)
Year: 2013
Thesis Topic: Prevention and mitigation of Kessler Syndrome effects in low earth orbit.
We were tasked with designing a "full stack" space mission complete with a constrained budget, launch vehicle, launch locations, and a mission time line from launch to end of mission.
We designed a "space debris removal as a service" satellite system that would deorbit debris from the Iridium 33 satellite collision. It would launch from Vandenburg's Space Launch Complex 4-East which would effectively inject the spacecraft into a polar orbit. Communications would be handled by McMurdo and Svalbard stations.
The craft would rendezvous with the debris, attach itself and deorbit. Initially we were going to use the atmosphere to burn up the debris but we did not have access to the materials that the Iridium satellite was made of so we were unsure if the debris Would completely disintegrate upon reentry so we decided to deorbit it into a graveyard orbit safely away from future spacelanes.
We got some flak from the defense panel stating our attachment methods wouldn't work so well in space but overall we received good reviews. I received an A for the project.
Comments
Course: Preliminary Spacecraft Design (for BS in Aerospace Engineering)
Group: 8 (I was Project Manager)
Year: 2013
Thesis Topic: Prevention and mitigation of Kessler Syndrome effects in low earth orbit.
We were tasked with designing a "full stack" space mission complete with a constrained budget, launch vehicle, launch locations, and a mission time line from launch to end of mission.
We designed a "space debris removal as a service" satellite system that would deorbit debris from the Iridium 33 satellite collision. It would launch from Vandenburg's Space Launch Complex 4-East which would effectively inject the spacecraft into a polar orbit. Communications would be handled by McMurdo and Svalbard stations.
The craft would rendezvous with the debris, attach itself and deorbit. Initially we were going to use the atmosphere to burn up the debris but we did not have access to the materials that the Iridium satellite was made of so we were unsure if the debris Would completely disintegrate upon reentry so we decided to deorbit it into a graveyard orbit safely away from future spacelanes.
We got some flak from the defense panel stating our attachment methods wouldn't work so well in space but overall we received good reviews. I received an A for the project.