NON-CONTACT MANIPULATION

Debris removal and satellite servicing missions must cope with the fact that many of their targets, having expended their propellant, will be “uncooperative” and likely rotating in one or more axes. This makes capture using purely contact-based methods such as a robotic arm extremely challenging to implement in practice, and not feasible beyond a threshold rotation rate.

The most frequently proposed solutions to this problem require the chaser spacecraft to expend a large quantity of propellant to rotation match with the target , or implement a "forced" intervention method such as a deployable net which increases the risk of damage to both the chaser and the target – creating more orbital debris in the process.

AstroMagnetic Systems have designed a non-contact solution using High Temperature Superconducting Magnets that slows down a targets rotational velocity at a safe distance, removing the need for high propellant consumption rotation-matching manoeuvres, reducing mission complexity for the operator, and reducing the risk of creating further orbital debris