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Simulation of the orbital decay of a spacecraft in low Earth orbit due to aerodynamic drag

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2021

R. Kumar Open the ORCID record for R. Kumar [Opens in a new window] ,
R. Singh ,
A.K. Chinnappan  and
A. Appar
R. Kumar*
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
R. Singh
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
A.K. Chinnappan
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
A. Appar
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
*
E-mail: rkm@iitk.ac.in
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Abstract

Orbiting objects in space are exposed to the risk of collision with space debris over their lifetime. Space debris orbiting in space experiences orbital decay due to various orbital perturbations. This work considers only orbital perturbations due to aerodynamic forces, which spacecraft experience due to the presence of a rarefied atmosphere, causing tumbling motion and orbital decay. Analysis of the orbital decay of a spacecraft is carried out by considering the variation of the drag coefficient as a function of its shape, motion and angle-of-attack. An in-house Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver is modified for aerodynamic analysis of a spacecraft orbiting in the free molecular regime in low Earth orbit. In addition, an orbital dynamics model is developed to simulate the tumbling motion of a spacecraft and its orbital decay. The orbital decay trajectory is predicted for two sample spacecrafts using the aerodynamic coefficients obtained from the in-house DSMC solver as inputs to the orbital decay model. This study analyses and explores in detail the effects of the aerodynamic coefficients and shape of a spacecraft on its orbital decay.

Keywords

Orbital decay analysisspace debrisDSMC methodfree molecular regime
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 126 , Issue 1297 , March 2022 , pp. 565 - 583
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

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