Simulating arbitrary interactions between small-scale space debris and a space-based pulsed laser system

This research investigates the performance of a space-based laser system to remove debris objects with size smaller than 10 cm. The laser system is placed in a 800 km Sun Synchronous Orbit and consists of a 20 kW laser that shoots 300 J energy pulses with a repetition frequency of 66.66 Hz. The system is able to detect and track debris...

APIS: Applications and Potentials of Intelligent Swarms for magnetospheric studies

Earth's magnetosphere is vital for today's technologically dependent society. The energy transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere triggers electromagnetic storms on Earth, knocking out power grids and infrastructure - e.g., communication and navigation systems. Despite occurring on our astrophysical doorstep, numerous physical...

Thermosphere Modelling using Machine Learning: Artificial Neural Networks to forecast thermospheric densities and generalise beyond the properties of an acceleration data set using the Swarm satellites as study case

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region has been attractive to many space agencies and organisations because of its ease of access and the ideal opportunity for remote sensing. Due to the low altitudes, a satellite's orbital state is highly affected by the atmospheric drag force acting on the satellite's body. The largest variation in this drag force...

Usage of fiber Bragg grating sensors in low earth orbit environment

It is widely known that materials exposed to the severe low earth orbit (LEO) environment undergo degradations. For the evaluation of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors in the LEO environment, the reflective spectrum change and the Bragg wavelength shift of FBG sensor were measured during aging cycles simulating the LEO environment. The LEO...