Ground-based laser effect on space debris maneuvering

Space debris events are increasingly frequent where they are sufficiently dense that the use of low Earth orbit space has now reached the point under the effect of mutual collisions. As a mitigation method, the goal was to study the efficiency of an orbital maneuver considering the gravitational effect and ground-based laser when the space debris traveling in a heliocentric orbit in the range of 1 cm to 10 cm and altitude ranging from 100 to 1000 km makes a close approach to Earth. An analytical model was performed considering factors, such as the laser’s fluency, the debris’s inclination, and the relative movement between laser and debris. The analysis was performed through the variation of velocity and energy after a close approach considering a single pulse laser. It is important in evaluating the orbital characteristics of space debris for better reentry of Earth’s atmosphere or avoiding collisions considering the impulse magnitude performed by ground-based laser. Some results show that the laser can perform a small change in Δ V and have maximum efficiency in energy variation of 12 % that can be accumulated and perform energy of the reentry. In that sense, this study provides the literature with a general study of this maneuver, showing its advantages over more traditional orbital maneuvers, as well as the best conditions to avoid collisions and mitigate space debris. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.