Propellantless Hyper Transfer Vehicle Data Collection and Engineering Analysis

The National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Engineering Industrial Innovation and Partnerships, provided Phase I funding for Active Debris Removal (ADR) study in April 2023. NSF Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant was awarded to Vortex Space Systems, LLC (VSS). VSS is uniquely qualified to perform Hyper Transfer Vehicle (HTV) concept demonstration that established the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3. The study achieved broader impact in propellantless performance and the intellectual merit objectives. The Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM) and methods were used for analyzing HTV performance from Phase I test data. Data sufficiency is achieved with many experimental operations and extensive data. The NSF Phase I Outcome Report is in [2]. An outreach video summary of the NSF Phase I study is published [3].