Study on performance of GTO debris removal using an electrodynamic tether

This paper studies the debris removal in geostationary transfer orbits (GTOs) using electrodynamic tethers. For simplicity, the electrodynamic tethered system is assumed as a point mass in the orbital dynamics analysis, whereas it is assumed as a rigid dumbbell with tether mass included in the tether libration dynamics analysis. Afterwards, major environmental perturbation forces on the electrodynamic tethered system are analyzed, such as the solar radiation pressure, the Earth’s non-spherical gravity, the atmospheric drag force, the electrodynamic force, and the lunisolar attraction. A bare tether is assumed and the current-voltage relationship along the tether is derived based on the orbital-motion-limited model. High order international geomagnetic reference field and international reference ionosphere are adopted for model accuracy. Numerical simulations are performed where hypothesis targets in Chinese Long March series’ GTOs are deorbited by using the electrodynamic tether. The decay efficiencies of the targets with the electrodynamic tether, the non-electrodynamic tether and without the tether are compared. Simulation results reveal that the tether libration caused by the orbital eccentricity is too large to suppress for the electrodynamic force. The electrodynamic tether has the ability to greatly increase the decay rate, especially for the GTOs with smaller inclination angles.