Research Issues and Challenges in Autonomous Active Space Debris Removal

Abstract

With respect to an increasing threat of space debris for the space environment, uncontrolled objects orbiting the Earth are subject to a series of activities for stabilization on the amount of man-made debris. It is well-known that one of the mitigation means, active space debris removal, (ADR) will be inevitable to achieve this goal. Mission scenarios for ADR involve docking and grabbing as well as formation flying operations with non-cooperative targets. Prospectively, these missions will require a higher level of autonomy than implemented nowadays. Especially during close approach and capture, time-critical manoeuvres due to unforeseen events have the need for autonomous situation based reactions which will alleviate this challenge. Based on a reasoned reference scenario, this paper introduces cognitive automation for critical manoeuvres with the capability to react on unexpected changes during mission time. This concept is found to be suitable for high level autonomy; for situation based action with the capability of weighing potentially contradictory goals. Its basics and system architecture are presented in this paper.