Nuclear-powered space debris sweeper

To insure the safety of man-made assets in Earth orbit, it will be necessary to protect them against collisions with the hypervelocity debris that is orbiting the Earth. This paper presents an active space debris sweeper concept that utilizes momentum transfer to the debris through laser-induced ablation or neutral particle beams to alter the debris' orbital parameters. Reduction of the orbital altitude of the debris will increase the debris' atmospheric drag and reduce its orbital lifetime. Studies have shown that a 10-kJ KrF laser is capable of imparting a velocity change (A J) of 2-30 m/s to an aluminum particle ranging in mass from 3.4-2.5 mg. For an object initially in a circular low Earth orbit, the negative APs would result in a 6-120 km decrease in an object's perigee. The power requirement for the space debris system, including orbital transfer, is estimated to be from 50-200 kWe, which is within the capability of the SP-100 nuclear power system.