RIDDS: Removal of Irregular Debris Using Double Nets

The quantity of debris in Earth’s orbit is increasing at an alarming rate, and without a sustainable solution, this will detriment the space environment, impacting the future of space travel and space traffic management. While numerous debris removal concepts and designs have been proposed, very few have made it to actual flight tests, and none can remove debris at a fast enough rate to stop debris growth. For debris currently in orbit, most proposed systems are costly on a large scale and cannot adapt to the wide variety of debris shape and geometry and tumbling. The purpose of the proposed Removal of Irregular Debris using Double Nets (RIDDs) is to shoot a series of nets to capture a target piece of orbital debris. To adapt to evolving needs, RIDDs utilizes a small CubeSat configuration but can easily be scaled up to capture larger debris. The goal of this research is to create a mechanism for launching multiple nets at a piece of target space debris to slow down and capture it for deorbit. The target debris will be less than 6U in size and tumble. Capture occurs in two stages. First, an untethered net is launched to detumble the target. Then, a second tethered net is deployed for capture and deorbit. This thesis will focus on the design and development of the RIDDs launch mechanism, as well as its prototypes and testing. It is concluded that the mechanism can successfully recompress springs and launch multiple nets. It is recommended that improvements be made to prevent spring bending and the masses from not fully deploying, make changes to increase the spring force, time be spent fully integrating the stepper motor, and that further testing be done with real and tethered nets.