ACTIVE SPACE DEBRIS REMOVAL BY USING LASER PROPULSION

At present, a few projects on the space debris removal by using high-power lasers are developed. One of the established projects is the ORION proposed by Claude Phipps from Photonics Associates Company and supported by NASA (USA) [1]. But the technical feasibility of the con-cept is limited by sizes of the debris objects (from 1 to 10 cm) because of a small thrust impulse generated at the laser ablation of the debris materials. At the same time, the removal of rocket upper stages and satellites, which have reached the end of their lives, has been carried out only in a very small number of cases and most of them remain on the Low Earth Orbits (LEO). To reduce the amount of these large-size objects, designing of space systems allowing deorbiting upper rocket stages and removing large-size satellite remnants from economically and scienti¦-cally useful orbits to disposal ones is considered. The suggested system is based on high-power laser propulsion. Laser-Orbital Transfer Vehicle (LOTV) with the developed aerospace laser propulsion engine is con-sidered as applied to the problem of mitigation of man-made large-size space debris in LEO.