Space Debris Removal: Technologies, Missions, and Science

Inna Sharf (McGill University, Department of Mechanical Engineering)

Apr 28, 2022 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Location: Youtube Live
Livestream

Join us for our next virtual public lecture on April 28th at 7pm, with McGill Prof. Inna Sharf from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as she tells us about her work to help keep the night sky clear by capturing and removing space debris!

Space debris has become a subject of popular interest in media and in scientific community. The space debris problem, not so much a problem now, but a potentially big problem in the future, can be remediated by using active debris removal strategies. We discuss two prominent technologies for debris capture and our work on robotic and tethered-net capture, as part of a debris removal mission. Our recent research on space debris remediation explores the possibility of exploiting a resonance between the effect of solar radiation pressure, the effect of Earth’s oblateness (J2 perturbation) and rotational motion of debris, for its deorbitation. Finally, we conclude with fundamental results and insights into the rotational motion of the ‘most wanted’ debris in Low Earth Orbit---the defunct spacecraft Envisat---and with comparisons between our attitude propagation results and observations of Envisat.

We invite you to listen to this talk on Youtube on April 28 at 7pm Eastern! You are welcome to ask questions in the Youtube chat.

Here is the Youtube link: https://youtu.be/0LvXXCyKzFc