Date of Award

2025-05-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Systems Engineering

Advisor(s)

Sergio Luna

Abstract

Space debris in Earth's orbital regimes is a complex threat that originates with human space activity and is maintained by Earth's gravitational force. Space debris poses the risk of colliding with and destroying operational space assets. These collisions, in turn, pose the risk of compounding space debris fragments by turning operational space entities involved in collisions into additional space debris. In other words, the space debris impact does not end with a fragment colliding with a space entity. Instead, the collision is a new space-debris birth since the entities colliding are likely to become multiple fragments. Depending on the collision's and resulting explosion's magnitude, each entity could turn into scores of individual fragments. Each of these resulting fragments would also possess the capability to produce the same catastrophic event that produced it. This threat, along with the increasing space activity in Earth orbital regimes, further increases the risk of accidental collisions and explosions that increase space debris. This study addresses space sustainability concerns raised by space debris risks in Earth's orbital regimes. Recent space activity includes deploying mega-constellations to LEO. This has increased congestion and collision risks. Furthermore, state actors have been performing catastrophic in-orbit ASAT testing that has added debris predicted to remain in Earthâ??s orbital regimes for decades or longer. Some ASAT debris has gone into MEO, whereas before, it remained in LEO. The debris that went to MEO will eventually gravitate to LEO, which means that this ASAT debris has impacted two orbital regimes, instead of just LEO. The debris problem in LEO has been known since 1978. Historically, the space debris problem has been and remains most severe in LEO. This is a major risk to space entities as LEO is the busiest of Earth's orbital regimes since LEO is used by every space mission. Whether it be a satellite or a spacecraft orbiting the Earth or any other space entity en route to deep space, it must enter LEO. This thesis proposes a novel approach to managing space debris issues in Earth's orbital regimes. The proposed solution was generated with a literature review and traditional SE tasks. The literature review was used to deduce stakeholders, their needs, and system requirements. Subsequently, the space system was analyzed in the context of human-based space missions. It was analyzed from the System-of-Systems Engineering (SoSE) perspective. This analysis verified that the proposed system's operating environment is a SoS. This verification was obtained by using established SoS defining criteria. These criteria was used to establish if the operating environment is comprised of various complex systems operating independently, if they are managed independently, and if they would continue functioning if other systems failed or were removed from the environment. Furthermore, the SoSE analysis was used to validate that the proposed solution should be created as a collaborative system operating in a directed SoS environment. The proposed solution has been labeled as the Space Debris Management System (SDMS). This thesis describes the evolution that led to its design as a collaborative system that operates in a directed SoS environment. The literature review introduces the systems that interface with it. The stakeholder analysis introduces the stakeholders. The requirements analysis shows the rationale that led to the system functionality. Chapter 3 describes the analysis and corresponding design decisions used for selecting the SDMS architecture as an organizing and collaborating system operating in a directed collaborating SoS environment. The SDMS is explained using MagicGrid and UAF view specifications.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

165 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Manuel Soto

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