RU2769579C1 - Space debris cleanup device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: space technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to space technology. The apparatus for cleaning up space debris includes a jet engine, an energy module and a garbage collector. The garbage collector contains a trap, which is a container in the form of an ellipsoid with windows for unloading and a system of solenoids that draw in garbage, distributed over the entire surface of the ellipsoid. The trap contains electromagnets that stabilize the chaotic movement of debris in the trap.

EFFECT: ensuring efficient cleaning of space debris.

2 cl, 2 dwg

Description

Debris in space is any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer fulfills its function. For example, stages of launch vehicles and "dead" satellites. Garbage is also called small fragments lost during the expeditions: nuts, bolts, bags, screwdrivers. 95% of space objects are garbage.

70% of the debris is in Earth orbit, which extends approximately 2,000 km above the Earth's surface. At the moment, there are at least 8,000 tons of garbage in the Earth's orbital space. Most of the objects that make up the debris cloud are debris, the size of which is more than 1 cm. In total, there are more than 750 thousand such debris. Their main danger is causing damage to satellites and vehicles that are currently in orbit or going into it. Elon Musk's Starlink project - networks means the appearance of 42,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, which will eventually become garbage. [1,2] The US and China blew up the satellites, creating many additional pieces, which complicated the dangerous situation.

MEANS OF COMBAT WITH SPACE DEBRIS:

- if space exploration is stopped, then in 10-20 years all debris will spiral down to earth, but not all will burn up in the atmosphere;

- when the ISS comes close to a space debris object, the station is maneuvered;

- for autonomous search and detection of dangerous objects at altitudes up to 50 thousand km, optical-electronic complexes with telescopes are placed all over the Earth;

- transportation of debris objects to distant stationary orbits (creating problems in the future) or into the Earth's atmosphere;

- destruction of an object by explosion or burning (evaporation) by a laser beam;

- shredding debris in orbit and recycling it into fuel.

All of humanity is actively exploring space for military and scientific purposes, and huge funds are allocated for this, but little is willing to sponsor the cleanup of space debris. Some firms in Russia and other leading countries are making weak attempts to create devices for cleaning up space debris.

The British company SSTL, in collaboration with specialists from several other European countries and South Africa, has developed a 100 kg cleaning satellite that has been delivered to the ISS. The satellite is thrown from the station at a distance of 7 m and a net is thrown out of it to capture debris. Another satellite uses a harpoon to catch the debris, which can operate at a distance of no more than 1.5 m from the satellite. After the operation is completed, the cleaning satellite will deploy a sail to enter the upper atmosphere, after which it will burn up in it.[3]

It is now known about alternative developments being carried out by private companies and research organizations. In particular, scientists are working on Velcro satellites and electrodynamic traps to reduce the speed of space debris. [4]

The Roscosmos State Corporation is developing a project for a space cleaner that can blow off (evaporate) space debris with a jet engine jet. [5]

The Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with Japanese specialists, plans to install a laser for high-power next-generation Xcan accelerators on the ISS. The laser will somehow deflect the trajectory of the dangerous object.

Known spacecraft for disposal of space debris, containing a power plant, made in the form of a thermionic reactor-converter, a detection system for bodies to be destroyed, a device for generating and directed energy transfer, made in the form of a laser equipped with a cooling system, and a propulsion system for maneuvering and correcting orbits [6].

A disadvantage of the known device is the use of an impact laser, which leads to the formation of smaller fragments, as well as a large mass of a spacecraft with a nuclear converter.

Known spacecraft for the disposal of space debris with an engine capable of processing debris into fuel, first grinding them into powder, using a planetary ball mill, which is then ground with tungsten needles and turns into plasma [7] It raises doubts about the method of turning debris into plasma, especially - grinding method.

Known spacecraft for disposal of space debris with an engine capable of processing debris into fuel [8, 9]. The main difference from the above analogue is the use of pseudo-liquid fuel instead of plasma. The space debris disposal system ensures its processing into powder, which, mixing with oxygen and hydrogen, forms pseudo-liquid fuel for spacecraft engines. The device includes a debris trap, a disposal system, and a space debris search system. The space debris trap consists of deformable dome-shaped and cone-shaped nets, converging-diverging relative to each other and interconnected by cables, which are tightened with the help of a telescopic hoop of the domed net and telescopic beams of the cone-shaped net, thus forming a closed cavity.

The recycling system uses a two-roller grinder and a drum-ball mill to produce a fine powder, which, when mixed in a fuel tank with oxygen and hydrogen obtained from water using a water regenerator and a membrane-electrode unit, forms a pseudo-liquid fuel. Inside the body of the spacecraft, a two-roll grinder, a drum-ball mill, a membrane-electrode block and a fuel tank are sequentially placed, and the water regenerator is built into the body of the spacecraft and is made in the form of pipes.

The idea is good and such devices will be created on distant planets in order to obtain fuel from local rocks. The project is beautiful, but utopian. How can pieces of metal be crushed to a fine powder with the indicated earth equipment? Metal is only cut or melted. The balls of the windmill are weightless in space. Garbage without coercion under the wolves of another mill will not climb ... How can dust be fed into the mixer without a pneumatic blower? Fine metal dust, hydrogen and oxygen are explosive substances, and in the mixture - no matter how the apparatus flew to the moon! The problem is garbage collection, and the question of its disposal is not yet raised. Garbage dust is heterogeneous, it is difficult to use it as a jet fuel - special scientific research is needed. A rocket engine is not a steam locomotive firebox to burn garbage in it in some form.

For lack of a better, we will take this device as a prototype.

The purpose of our invention: the creation of an efficient apparatus for cleaning up space debris. To achieve this goal, a device with a different method of tracking, catching, crushing and destroying space debris is proposed.

The apparatus for cleaning up space debris includes: a jet engine, an energy module and a garbage collector. It differs from the prototype and devices such as "network", "harpoon", "laser" and "electronic" guns in that the garbage collector consists of a locator, an automatic control system, a robotic platform and an electromagnetic "trap" of garbage. The “trap” is an ellipsoid-shaped container with unloading windows and a system of solenoids that draw in debris distributed over the entire surface of the ellipsoid; there are electromagnets at the ends of the ellipsoid that stabilize the chaotic movement of debris in the “trap”.

For catching and grinding large objects of garbage that do not burn in the atmosphere, there is a robotic platform consisting of two robotic manipulators and a robot with a tracking and control system. Garbage is cut on a table-magnet.

The waste cutting tracking system includes two video cameras with an image recognition program and a rangefinder.

The device is covered with protective screens in front.

Guidance of the device to the object is carried out from the Earth.

Spacecraft and debris move around the Earth at approximately the same speed. To catch debris, small accelerations or "braking" of the device are required. To transport waste into the atmosphere, an increased power of the apparatus is required. You can increase the thrust: burn more fuel or achieve a higher velocity of the jet of hot gases from the nozzle. Many space engines have been created with different technical and economic characteristics and the ability to maneuver, gain speed and brake: the RS-68 rocket engine, the American F1 engine, the Soviet RD-170 - these engines are designed to carry hundreds of tons of payload into space. They are not for our device. Since the mid-1960s, a small Soviet rocket engine, the KDU-414, has been used to correct the orbit of spacecraft. Its length is only 70 cm and it gives a thrust of about 200 kilograms. But it does not guarantee the long and reliable operation required in our case. Russian upper stages DM and Fregat, for example, have a failure rate in the region of one to three percent. For an apparatus - a garbage collector, such an indicator is more than acceptable. However, rocket engines are extremely uneconomical. Their efficiency is inferior to that of a locomotive, they consume gigantic reserves of fuel with an oxidizer. [10] Near the Earth, as in our case, refueling is possible and such engines are acceptable to us.

Low-power, but more economical and reliable, capable of operating in space for years, are ion and plasma installations, which are currently used on many satellites to keep them in orbit. The essence of the ion engine is that first the gas turns into a plasma, a mixture of positively charged ions with electrons. Then the charged particles are accelerated by the electromagnetic field and thrown out. Interplanetary missions will require powerful ion or plasma thrusters powered by a large array of solar arrays or a nuclear reactor. There are projects of "solar" and "electric" sails, etc. But this does not apply to the problem of cleaning up space debris.

Guidance of the device to the object is carried out from the Earth. When approaching the object, control is transferred to the locator, the ACS of the garbage collector and the control unit of the energy module. When the device comes into contact with the object, the tracking and control system of the robotic platform is included in the control. One of the robots grabs the selected object and transfers it to the magnetic table. The second robot, using a set of tools from the "shop", cuts the garbage object into parts that are guaranteed to burn in the atmosphere. The first robot transfers pieces of garbage to the body of the "trap", where the solenoids draw them inside the ellipsoid.

The computer program that controls the process of catching large debris and shredding them by three robots is quite complex.

The signals from the spacecraft's sensors are transmitted to Earth for analysis by the same automated control system.

In FIG. 1 shows a general view of the device in the assembly, consisting of a jet engine - 1, an energy module - 2 and a garbage collector - 3.

The energy module has an energy unit - 4 and a control unit - 5.

In the power block - 4 there are: an electric generator, an energy transformer and a battery, solar panels are installed on top of the block. The control unit - 5 is used to control the apparatus during the operation of the garbage collector and the transportation of cargo into the atmosphere and return to orbit.

Garbage bin - 3 consists of a locator - 6, ACS - 7, a robotic platform - 8 and an electromagnetic "trap" of garbage - 9. "Trap" -9 is an ellipsoid-shaped container - 10 with windows for unloading and a system of solenoids 11 distributed over the entire surface of the ellipsoid; on the ends of the ellipsoid there are electromagnets - 12, 13

In FIG. 2 shows a robotic platform 3 for grinding large debris objects, consisting of two robotic manipulators 14, 15 and a robot 16 with a tracking system 17 and a control system - 18. Garbage is cut on a magnet table - 19. When transporting the apparatus into the atmosphere, platform 3 is removed inside the trash can - 3.

The tracking system 17 for cutting garbage includes two video cameras - 20, 21 with a program for identifying images and a range finder - 22. For robots there is a store of removable tools: "scissors", "capture", "nippers", "forks", "grinder", etc. .d.

The device is aimed at objects remotely from the Earth. The movement of the device is corrected using the locator - 6. Signals from the Earth and from the locator are processed by ACS-7. Motion control signals are received from the ACS-7 to the control unit 5.

The engine 1 brings the device to the object, one of the robots 14, 15 captures the object and transfers it to the cutting magnetic table 19 and holds it. Another robot, using one of the working tools, divides the object into parts that burn in the atmosphere.

The first robot transfers the pieces to the body of the "trap" - 9, where the solenoids 11 draw them into the "trap". All operators are monitored by a third robot - 16 with two video cameras - 20, 21 and a range finder - 22. System - 18 controls the joint work of 3 robots - 14, 15, 16 to capture and cut large debris objects, which requires a rather complex computer program.

As the “trap” fills up, a signal is received from the Earth to move the apparatus into the planet’s atmosphere. There, the garbage gains weight and is easily unloaded through the windows in the "trap". Further, the apparatus returns to orbit, and the debris burns completely in the Earth's atmosphere.

The device receives energy from the engine - 1 and solar panels - 23, 24. The device is covered with a protective screen from the front - 25.

The "trap" can be made huge if it is a team or inflatable. In practice, space debris cleanup work is not carried out "until the thunder strikes."

[1] // NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS).

https://arxiv.org/pdf/l 102.1289.pdf.

[2] C.C. Veniaminov, A.M. Chervonov, Space debris is a threat to humanity / M: IKI RAN, 2012, ISSN 2075-6836.

[3] https://habr.com/ru/post/414989/.

[4] https://scienceandtech.ru/articles/musor-v-kosmose/.

[5] yandex.ru/efir, 2016.

[6] RU 2040448 C1 1995.07.25.

[7] httpx:https://arxiv.org/abc/1511.07246. Lay et al., The Space Debris Collector: A Potential Space Debris Hunter, 2015.

[8] httpx:https://pikabu.ru/story/v_rossiirazrabotali_kompleks_dlya_pererabotki_musora_v_k6643670.

[9] https://www.bnkomi.ru/'data/news/93089/.

[10] https://nauka.tass.ru/tech/6820950.

Claims (2)

1. An apparatus for cleaning up space debris, including a jet engine, an energy module and a garbage collector, characterized in that the garbage collector consists of a locator, an automated control system, a robotic platform and an electromagnetic garbage trap, which is an ellipsoid-shaped container with windows for unloading and a system of solenoids that retract debris, which are distributed over the entire surface of the ellipsoid, at the ends of the ellipsoid there are electromagnets that stabilize the chaotic movement of debris in the trap. 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said robotic platform consists of two robotic manipulators and a robot with a tracking and control system, as well as a magnetic table on which garbage is shredded by robots.

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