COBRA contactless detumbling

Abstract

COBRA is the proposed technique to control the motion of a non-cooperative target by means of the interaction between the thruster exhaust gases from the chaser and the target object. In the original ESA SysNova study, the COBRA concept was investigated as an active debris removal system, using contactless technology to deorbit a space debris object and to control its attitude. It was found that the concept is more effective for controlling the attitude of a debris object. An on-orbit experiment was proposed to have a chaser modify the attitude state of a space object in ESA’s COBRA IRIDES project, which has now been canceled due to the lack of propellant in the chaser spacecraft. This study presents the results of an internal follow-up study on how to effectively use the COBRA concept for detumbling a large debris object and controlling its attitude motion prior to capture operations in an active debris removal mission.