A mission concept for removing multiple debris using formation-flying slingshot spacecraft

To mitigate the threat posed by the increasing quantity of space debris populating Low Earth Orbit, innovative, efficient, and cost-effective solutions must be developed to perform active debris removal. To address this need, the REusable Spacecraft Teams for on-Orbit debris REmoval (RESTORE) concept is proposed, comprising a team of three or more spacecraft carrying a net that captures and deorbits small-sized debris through dragging and slingshot ejection maneuvers. A preliminary design analysis of the system is performed in this work to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept. The system performance throughout the different phases of the debris removal mission is evaluated by examining the results of dynamics simulations. Multiple debris removal mission architectures are examined along with systems engineering of the spacecraft. The RESTORE system is shown to efficiently remove small- to medium-sized debris with sufficient safety and delta-v margins.