Abstract
Current protection techniques leave spacecraft vulnerable to objects between approximately 1 and 10 cm. This paper summarizes the conceptual design of a space vehicle with the objective of shielding spacecraft from objects in this range of sizes, which was made to study the feasibility of such a method for spacecraft protection. The design was divided into three stages: first, using SPH simulations, a multi-layer shield capable of defeating large projectiles was designed; next, a deployment mechanism that allowed the shield to be stored compactly for launch was designed and analyzed using a vector-based kinematics and dynamics method; finally, a general design of the service module was made. The final design has feasible dimensions for a spacecraft to be placed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and consists of an eight-layer shield with an umbrella-inspired deployment mechanism.
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Thomson, D.M., Cherniaev, A., Telichev, I. (2015). Conceptual Design of an “Umbrella” Spacecraft for Orbital Debris Shielding. In: Sgobba, T., Rongier, I. (eds) Space Safety is No Accident. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15982-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15982-9_5
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