Simulating arbitrary interactions between small-scale space debris and a space-based pulsed laser system

This research investigates the performance of a space-based laser system to remove debris objects with size smaller than 10 cm. The laser system is placed in a 800 km Sun Synchronous Orbit and consists of a 20 kW laser that shoots 300 J energy pulses with a repetition frequency of 66.66 Hz. The system is able to detect and track debris objects in situ using a 2.0 m mirror from 800 km distance. From a distance of about 500 km, the laser fluence on the targets is sufficiently high to trigger ablation, which decelerates the debris objects and reduces their lifetime. The feasibility of the concept is tested in scenarios where the laser system targets the debris objects from a different orbiting altitude and from varying azimuth angles. For many geometries, the laser is capable of significantly reducing the lifetime of the debris object. Extrapolating to longer periods of operation, the laser can be expected to provide a significant reduction of the population of small debris objects in LEO.& COPY; 2022 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This research investigates the performance of a space-based laser system for removing debris objects smaller than 10 cm. The system uses a 20 kW laser in an 800 km Sun Synchronous Orbit to detect and track debris objects from a distance of 800 km. By emitting high-intensity laser pulses, the system can decelerate and reduce the lifetime of debris objects, effectively reducing the population of small debris objects in LEO.