Mission Design and Disposal Methods Comparison for the Removal of Multiple Debris

In this paper, detailed mission design for multiple debris removal is performed by selecting the most favorable sequences of the objects to be removed. Debris among a population with similar inclination values are considered. An approximate analysis, based on the use of J2 effect to minimize propellant consumption, provides accurate estimations of actual transfer times and Delta V between any debris pair in order to evaluate the costs of any possible sequence. The mass of the removal kit for any debris is evaluated, based on debris orbit and mass, and on the selected removal method. The overall mission mass budget is thus evaluated. All the possible sequences are compared by means of this fast procedure and the best opportunities in terms of mass and mission time are selected. Transfer trajectories are verified by a local search module, which evaluates rendezvous transfers between two given orbits taking J2 perturbation into account for an accurate evaluation of the mission costs. Up to four impulses are considered for the transfer between debris pairs.