Active debris removal employing a robotic arm equipped CubeSat

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Active debris removal employing a robotic arm equipped CubeSat

Federico Basana, Francesco Branz, Alessandro Francesconi

Abstract. Space debris pose significant risks to functioning satellites. To mitigate the issue, the space sector is studying new technologies for Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions. Conventional methods rely on large and complex satellites equipped with robotic arms but the high economic cost of these may outweigh the benefit related with the debris removal. This paper proposes a novel, cost-effective approach. A 12U CubeSat equipped with a robotic arm is employed to attach an Elementary Servicing Unit (ESU) to target satellites. The CubeSat integrates essential subsystems such as power management, an Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS), a mono-ocular camera for navigation, and a four-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm. To study the feasibility of the mission, a simulator in the MATLAB/Simulink environment has been developed together with a guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system. In addition, a mock-up of the proposed CubeSat has been developed for testing a simple manoeuvre in relevant laboratory environment to attach the ESU to a target. The preliminary results obtained from the simulation and the design of the CubeSat mock-up are presented in the paper.

Keywords
In Orbit Servicing, Active Debris Removal, CubeSat, Robotic Arm

Published online 6/1/2024, 5 pages
Copyright © 2024 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Federico Basana, Francesco Branz, Alessandro Francesconi, Active debris removal employing a robotic arm equipped CubeSat, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 42, pp 108-112, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903193-24

The article was published as article 24 of the book Aerospace Science and Engineering

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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