The technology of using inflatable structures made of special materials to adapt the de-orbiting system for removing spacecraft

Abstract

We are today facing a huge issue on the concentration of space debris in near-Earth space. More than 15,000 debris have been recorded, and this represents a danger for current and future missions to space. A solution to this issue is to remove these spacecrafts from orbit. One of the ways to do it is to use inflatable device. These braking device can be installed on the landing vehicles on Earth, before their launch, or after they have been labelled as space debris. Studies have already been conducted about inflatable device. The results of these studies show that using an inflatable device on an orbital spacecraft significantly reduces its lifetime (it then does not exceed 25 years in most cases). Using inflatable device instead of rigid device has advantages, such as a small mass and a great compacity, which is convenient to respect the required launching volume.