Energy costs for combined removal of large-scale space debris, taking into account the dynamically changing Earth atmosphere

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The ecological state of the near-Earth space continues to deteriorate gradually. Disintegration and collisions of space debris objects occurring all the time have led to the fact that in the low orbits more than a million objects of a total mass exceeding 3500 tons are moving creating a serious problem of using near-Earth space for human needs. About 5 thousand of them are large-scale objects representing potential threat (defunct satellites and upper stages of carrier rockets), the destruction of which due to various reasons can significantly worsen the current space situation.One of the most promising ways of cleaning near-Earth space from such objects is the use of combined means of removal implemented on the basis of a jet propulsion system and an aerodynamic sail. At the same time, according to the International Convention on the Non-Proliferation of Space Debris, the lifetime of a tether in the orbit of disposal should not exceed 25 years. Obviously, the effectiveness of such means of withdrawal largely depends on the state of the upper atmosphere, which, according to the standards, functionally depends on solar activity, changing cyclically with a period of 11 years. Consequently, the energy costs for withdrawal will depend not only on the height of the initial orbit, the ballistic coefficient, but also on the phase of solar activity at the time when the removal of the space object begins.After analyzing the available achievements and publications it can be concluded that a number of organizations and specialists are engaged in the analysis of the debris removal processes, but the analysis of the effect of the solar activity phase on the process of removing large-sized objects of space debris using combined means has not been carried out.This paper presents the simulation analysis of the large space debris objects removal by a garbage collector made on the basis of a jet propulsion system and a sailing device from circular equatorial orbits with a height of up to 1500 km. Dependences of the perigee height of the displacement orbit with the lifetime of no more than 25 years on the height of the initial orbit, the ballistic coefficient, and the phase of solar activity at the time of the departure beginning are obtained.The ranges of the speed pulse change as well as the minimum energy requirements for the formation of the decay orbit of a garbage collector tethered to an object of removal with a mass of 3 tons and a specific impulse of the jet propulsion system of 330 s. are determined.