Adimurthy 2006
Adimurthy 2006
www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro
Received 20 June 2005; received in revised form 31 August 2005; accepted 13 September 2005
Abstract
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recognizes the importance of the current space debris scenario, and the impact
it has on the effective utilization of space technology for the improvement in the quality of life on the Earth. ISRO is committed
to effective management of the threats due to space debris. Towards this commitment ISRO works on different aspects of space
debris, including the debris mitigation measures. This paper highlights the activities and achievements in the implementation
of the mitigation measures. ISRO successfully designed and developed a propellant venting system for implementation in the
existing upper stage of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which uses Earth-storable liquid propellants. GSLV also
employs passivation of the Cryogenic Upper Stage at the end of its useful mission. ISRO’s communication satellites in GSO are
designed with adequate propellant margins for re-orbiting at the end of their useful life to a higher graveyard orbit. A typical
successful operation in connection with INSAT-2C is described. ISRO developed its debris environmental models and software
to predict the close approach of any of the debris to the functional satellites. The software are regularly used for the debris risk
management of the orbiting spacecraft and launch vehicles. ISRO recognizes the role of international cooperation in the debris
mitigation measures and actively contributes to the efforts of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC)
and United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS).
© 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
services both at the national and global levels. Great At the end of mission, the GEO satellites are planned
emphasis is placed on the operational use of remote to be re-orbited in accordance with the IADC guidelines.
sensing applications in the fields of water resources, Also, the batteries are safed in order to prevent an orbit
agriculture, soil and land degradation, mineral and explosion. An example of the recently concluded GSO
groundwater exploration, geomorphological mapping, satellite re-orbiting is presented in this paper [1].
coastal and ocean resources monitoring, environment, The analysis of close approaches of space debris with
ecology and forest mapping, land-use and land-cover active ISRO spacecraft is carried out on a routine basis
mapping. at the operational centers. ISRO developed the models
Unfortunately, over a period of time, international and software to predict the close approach of any of the
space initiatives have left behind a plethora of space ob- debris to the functional satellites [2]. The software are
jects that no longer serve any useful functions, but pose being regularly used during the control and manage-
risk to space operations. Thus, space debris becomes an ment of the orbiting spacecraft, and are specially use-
important subject for all space faring nations in partic- ful during the relocation of the geo-stationary satellites
ular and humanity in general. This paper describes the from one orbital slot to another orbital slot. The anal-
milestones in the space debris mitigation measures in ysis software can also be used for planning the launch
India. window. The planned lift-off time of PSLV-C4 launch
vehicle in September 2002 was modified by a few min-
utes to avoid possible close approach by some of the
2. Over view of space debris activities in ISRO existing space debris.
In the area of analytical modeling related to frag-
The space debris activities in ISRO have been ad- mentation, a number of approaches are developed to
dressed in the design and operational phases of its study the evolution of break up fragments [3–11]. Fur-
launch vehicle and satellite programs. In the design ther modeling of fragmentation and subsequent decay
of PSLV final stage, which uses earth-storable liquid of space objects in LEO and Geostationary Transfer or-
propellants, a propellant venting system has been de- bit (GTO) are in progress [12,13]. In the area of pro-
signed. ISRO’s launch vehicle, GSLV, also employs tection, hypervelocity impacts are studied using finite
passivation of the Cryogenic Upper Stage at the end of element techniques [14].
its useful mission. The ISRO’s communication satel- As a member of the UN Committee on the Peace-
lites in Geo-synchronous orbit (GSO) are designed ful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), and through
with adequate propellant margins for re-orbiting to a ISRO’s membership in the Inter-Agency Space Debris
higher orbit at the end of their useful life. The strategy Coordination Committee (IADC), India is contributing
is implemented on a case-by-case basis consistent with significantly to the international efforts and activities in
national service requirements. The propulsion systems, the field of space debris. This commitment is amply re-
by design, are built as integrated systems with the flected in its hosting the 21st IADC Meeting in Banga-
spacecraft bus and payload. The propulsion system is lore during March 2003.
not separated in orbit. Also these are liquid propul-
sion systems and the ejecta do not contain any solid
particles. 3. Passivation of upper stages
In the operational phase, the last stage of PSLV has
been passivated beginning with PSLV-C4, which was On-orbit explosions of spacecraft and upper stages
successfully launched on 12th September 2002. The op- create a substantial portion of the space debris. More
tions considered for implementation of passivation are than 40% of the catalogued space debris originated from
presented in the paper. The pressure measurements dur- such explosions. These breakups are caused by a wide
ing the flight were telemetered indicating the successful variety of causes: battery failure, over-pressurization
implementation of passivation of the stage. With the im- and/or ignition of fuels, accidental collisions, deliber-
plementation of this passivation, the possibility of on- ate detonation, etc. About 170 cases of on-orbit frag-
orbit fragmentation has been minimized in all the fu- mentations are reported so far; most of them due to
ture flights of PSLV. India’s launch vehicles, PSLV and propulsion related explosions. Glimpses of some major
GSLV, and the satellites IRS, INSAT and GSAT series breakup events are given in Table 1.
are designed in such a way that no operational debris Analyses of accidental fragmentation for both space-
is created in the launch and deployment phases of the craft and upper stages have shown that vehicle passiva-
mission. tion, i.e. removal of all forms of stored energy, would
170 V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174
Table 1 300
Glimpses of some major breakup events
(Cumulative)
OV2-1/LCS R/B 1965 470 200
NIMBUS 4 R/B 1970 372
COSMOS 1275 1981 306 150
SPOT1/Viking R/B 1986 489
STEP II R/B 1996 704 100
PSLV-C3 R/B 2001 330
50
0
eliminate most such events. Effective measures include 1 5 9 13 17 21
the expulsion of residual propellants by burning or vent- Months from December 2001
ing, the discharge of batteries, the release of pressurized Fig. 1. Cumulative decay of PSLV-C3 debris fragments.
fluids, safing of unused destruct devices, etc. Though
studies on passivation of upper stage were initiated
much earlier, the break up of PSLV-C3 R/B has accel- (2) To avoid exhaust plume interaction with the struc-
erated the implementation of passivation scheme in the ture, location of the vent nozzles was selected to
upper stage of PSLV from C4 mission onwards. eliminate the interaction zone between the exhaust
Passivation of the upper stage is successfully imple- plume and the structure.
mented in the stage design to avoid any explosions after (3) To avoid contamination of the spacecraft, sufficient
its useful purpose is completed. time gap is given before initiating passivation after
The following options were considered for passiva- spacecraft separation.
tion of PS4: (4) Propellant freezing during passivation. Experi-
ments with MON-3 gas in high altitude test facil-
(1) Venting the trapped propellants and subsequently
ity indicate no freezing of propellants. Thermal
the pressurant through the main engines in a
analysis also corroborates this.
sequential manner by opening the main engine
valves. Pressure measurements telemetered during the flight
(2) Consuming the total propellants by restarting the of PSLV-C4 substantiated the successful implementa-
main engines. tion of the passivation scheme. ISRO’s launch vehicle,
(3) Consuming the propellants by firing the reaction GSLV, also employs passivation of the cryogenic upper
control thrusters meant for attitude stabilization. stage at the end of useful mission.
(4) Venting the propellants through an additional A detailed analysis was made on the fragmentation
branching in the feed lines of each propellant of the PSLV-C3 Upper Stage, which took place before
using separate pyrovalves added in the circuit. the implementation of passivation. The prefragmenta-
(5) Venting the pressurant gas from the propellant tank tion orbit of the rocket body was 550 km ×675 km, with
and gas bottles along with the propellant vapors in an inclination of 97.9◦ . About 330 catalogued fragments
the tanks through an additional branching in the were generated in this explosion. Even though a large
pressurization lines of each tank using separate number of fragments were generated in this event, the
pyrovalves added in the circuit. objects soon decayed. By September 2003 about 70%
The last option considered was selected for the pas- of the fragments have decayed. A pictorial representa-
sivation of PS4 stage due to its simplicity and safety to tion of the decay during the first 12 months is shown
the separated spacecraft. in Fig. 1. Different deterministic and stochastic mod-
In course of the design of the passivation system the els, developed in ISRO, for fragmentation events, are
following specific problem areas were addressed to and reported in [3–11].
required corrective measures were incorporated in the
design:
4. End-of-mission re-orbiting from GSO
(1) Buckling of tank common bulkhead during passi-
vation. MON-3 compartment is vented first to have ISRO’s communication satellites in GSO are de-
a positive pressure in MMH tank. signed with margins for re-orbiting to a higher orbit at
V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174 171
140
Perigee
120
(a) computation of collision probability between
100 spacecraft of interest and other resident space
80 objects,
60 (b) assessment of acceptable collision probability,
(c) choice of appropriate interval for space debris
40 GSO Altitude
proximity analysis.
20
0 For the computation of the collision probability be-
-20 tween a spacecraft of interest and other resident space
-40 objects, necessary inputs are:
1 11 21 31 41
Pulsing Days (a) threshold for minimum conjunction distance,
(b) combined trajectory dispersion,
50 (c) effective collision radius.
45
The minimum conjunction distance between the
Mean Longitude (degree)
30000
Many spent upper stages are separated and left in the
containing the detrimental effects of space debris. ISRO [5] A.S. Ganeshan, M.R. Ananathasayanam, Simulation and
will continue to keep these factors in mind in all its fu- modeling of orbital debris environment by equivalent breakups,
ture space endeavors. Advances in Space Research 19 (1997) 309–312.
[6] A.S. Ganeshan, S. Nirmala, S.C. Rathnakara, M.R.
Ananthasayanam, Ballistic Parameter Estimation for the
Acknowledgements Equivalent Break-up Model, IAA-01-IAA.6.5.02, 2001.
[7] M.R. Ananthasayanam, A.K. Anil Kumar, P.V. Subba Rao,
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribu- Characterization of Eccentricity and Ballistic Coefficient of
tions of A.K. Anilkumar, P. Bandyopadhyay, V. Gane- Space Debris in Altitude and Perigee Bins., IAA.5.P.04, 2003.
san, V. Krishnamurthy, Madan Lal, S. Nirmala, S. [8] A.K. Anil Kumar, M.R. Ananthasayanam, P.V. Subba Rao, On-
Orbit Collision Probability Analysis in LEO Using SIMPLE
Parameswaran, C.G. Patil, M.Y.S. Prasad, R.K. Sharma Model and Poisson Probability Distribution, IAA.5.2.09, 2003.
and P.V. Subba Rao in preparation of this document. [9] A.K. Anil Kumar, M.R. Ananthasayanam, P.V. Subba Rao,
The authors express their gratitude to N. Vedacha- A New Modeling Approach for Orbital Breakup in Space,
lam, G. Madhavan Nair and K. Kasturirangan for their COSPAR 02-A-01843, 2002.
constant encouragement and support in course of this [10] M.R. Ananthasayanam, A.K. Anil Kumar, P.V. Subba Rao, A
New Stochastic Impressionistic Low Earth (SIMPLE) Model
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