Impact Behaviour Analysis of a Passive Compliant Unit for Active Space Debris Removal

The exponential growth of space debris in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) has led Active Debris Removal (ADR) systems to be declared by space agencies as a viable solution for ensuring safe space activities. The main capturing systems are designed for large specific cooperative satellites, which leads to expensive one-to-one solutions. However, several uncooperative small debris remain in LEO. These can still be a great threat for future space missions. By integrating active and passive compliance parts, the studied concept set a closer step towards a one-to-many solution. This Hybrid-Compliant system can help dissipate the impact energy, increasing the space system's autonomy, and consequently help capture a broader range of space debris. This paper focuses on building a program simulating the mechanical behaviour of the system's Passive Compliant Unit (PCU) during an impact with a flat-surface debris and comparing it with experimental data. A presentation of the PCU concept, and its testing prototype, is first introduced. Then, the simulation model is presented through the equations and workflows involved. After that, an experimental testing procedure is proposed, as the generated data will finally help compare with the model. A discussion about future improvements of the model and further works concludes this paper.