RemoveDebris Preliminary Mission Results

International audienceThe EC FP7 RemoveDebris mission aims to be one of the world’s first Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions to demonstrate key technologies in-orbit in a cost effective ambitious manner, including: net capture, harpoon capture, vision-based navigation, dragsail de-orbitation. RemoveDebris is a low-cost mission funded jointly by the European Commission (EU) and 10 partners: the University of Surrey (UK), Airbus (France, Germany, UK); Ariane Group (France); Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, (UK); Innovative Solutions In Space (Netherlands); CSEM (Switzerland); Inria (France); Stellenbosch University (South Africa). The mission will utilise two CubeSats as artificial debris targets to demonstrate the technologies. In early 2018, the main 100-kg satellite was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) and deployed via the NanoRacks Kaber system into an orbit of around 400 km. The mission comes to an end in early 2019 with all space entities having been de-orbited.This paper reports on the LEOP and commissioning phase of the mission in preparation for experimental tests due to begin end of 2018