Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174

www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

Space debris mitigation measures in India

V. Adimurthya,∗ , A.S. Ganeshanb
a Aeronautics Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India
b Flight Dynamics Division, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore 560017, India

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.

1. Introduction the satellite launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV to place

these satellites in the required orbits.
The prime objective of the Indian Space Research The primary aim of ISRO’s programme is to pro-
Organization (ISRO) has been to develop space technol- mote development and application of space science and
ogy and its application to various national tasks. Since technology to assist in all-round development of the na-
1969, when it was set up, ISRO has established space tion. In the 1980s, ISRO initiated a major revolution
systems like the INSAT for telecommunication, televi- in India’s communication sector. The Indian national
sion broadcasting and meteorological services, and the satellite (INSAT) System is one of the largest in the
Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) for resources Asia-Pacific region today. The INSAT System provides
monitoring and management. ISRO has developed services in S-band, C-band, Extended C-band and Ku-
band. It also provides meteorological images through
very high resolution Radiometer and CCD cameras. IN-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 4712565714; SAT system serves many other important sectors of the
fax: +91 4712704134. Indian economy.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (V. Adimurthy), Today, India has also the largest constellation of
[email protected] (A.S. Ganeshan). Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS), which is providing
0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.09.002
 V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174 169

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

Number of Objects Decayed

250
Object Event year Tracked pieces

(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

the end of their useful life. The strategy is implemented 1800

on a case-by-case basis consistent with National service 1600

Firing Duration in Sec

requirements. The re-orbiting and decommissioning 1400
operation of INSAT-2C are briefly described here. The
1200
operations are planned and executed by the Master
1000
Control Facility at Hassan [1].
INSAT-2C was launched on December 6, 1995 and 800
had been collocated with INSAT-2B at 93.5◦ until 600
March 01, 2002. The spacecraft was repositioned to 400
48◦ E longitude successfully on April 05, 2002 for 200
operational reasons. Subsequently, INSAT-2C had ful- 0
filled all its mission goals and a decision was taken for 1 11 21 31 41
decommissioning INSAT-2C.
Pulsing Days
The decommissioning of INSAT-2C was planned
along the lines of International Guidelines of Space Fig. 2. Firing pulse durations for INSAT-2C relocation.
Debris management by targeting apogee and perigee
heights above GSO. The maneuvers had to be planned
and executed having observed the propellant-depleted
condition. The micro-pulsing maneuver operations was carried out. While crossing nearby space-
were started on June 10, 2003 and continued until July crafts, duration of pulsing was limited to mini-
25, 2003 to obtain a drift rate of 1.71◦ /rev westward mum, or not done to ensure mutual safety.
drift rate. In this process, orbital perigee height was (3) As part of final passivation, spacecraft Ni-Cd bat-
increased to 127 km above GSO and Apogee height teries were disconnected from Main Busses and
was increased to 150 km above GSO. the charge arrays from solar panels were also dis-
As per the IADC guidelines, at the end of useful mis- connected. Self-discharge is expected to finally de-
sion life, spacecraft should be disposed off to the grave- plete the batteries of the stored energy.
yard orbit with minimum perigee height above GSO (4) At the end of operations, all the unused thermal
given by loads were also switched OFF, which were earlier
kept ON for thermal balance.
Perigee height (km)
235 + 1000 × reflectivity (5) All the propulsion valves were kept closed and it
was also ensured that the system was empty.
coefficient × (area/mass). (6) The telemetry transmitters were switched OFF
so that there was no RF emission from the
For the case of INSAT-2C, the above requirement spacecraft.
translates to 281.4 km above GSO.
The initial Perigee height was 30 km below GSO The maneuver operations were started on June 10,
and Apogee height was 30 km above GSO. It was 2003. The maneuvers were continued for nearly 44 days
decided to raise the perigee first to reach the level to achieve a drift rate of 1.71◦ /day. The details of the
of observed apogee height and further maneuvers to pulsing duration and orbit achieved each day are illus-
alternate between perigee and apogee rising suitably. trated in the Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. On average,
Increasing the orbital height results in a westward thrusters were fired daily for 600 s with a number of
drift. Necessary operational procedures were worked pulses of 130 ms duration.
out to effect the delta-velocity change to the orbit. In INSAT-2C was successfully decommissioned after its
particular, the following operational procedures were useful mission life on July 30, 2003. Though the tar-
observed: get perigee height of 281 km above GSO could not be
achieved due to propulsion and visibility constraints, the
(1) Prior to the start of activities, all communication achieved apogee height of 150 km and perigee height of
receivers and transponders were switched OFF 127 km above GSO were commensurate with the sys-
to avoid any interference to any other spacecraft tem constraints. Maximum efforts were taken so that in-
while drifting. terference to other satellites was avoided during the 44
(2) With the new orbital elements, critical evaluation days of operation. The spacecraft was also passivated
of close approach to any other listed spacecrafts at the final stage.
172 V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174

160 The basic philosophy of the Space Debris Proximity

Apogee Analysis hinges on three facets, namely,
Difference from GSO Altitude (km)

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)

40 spacecraft of interest and other resident space objects

35
within a specified time span is computed in a deter-
ministic sense. This is computationally expensive since
30 trajectories of all the catalogued objects need to be
checked vis-à-vis that of the spacecraft of interest.
25
So before this process can proceed, in order to avoid
20 unnecessary computational burden and produce a fast
assessment, four filters can be used: an orbital separa-
15
tion filter, an apogee–perigee filter, a time filter, and
10 an epoch filter. The application of the filters drastically
1 11 21 31 41
reduced the number of catalogued objects to be consid-
Pulsing Days
ered in the proximity analysis. The combined trajectory
Fig. 3. Changes in INSAT-2C position during relocation operation. dispersion for the spacecraft of interest and a particular
catalogued object is to be determined for carrying out
the space debris proximity analysis. For the spacecraft
5. Space debris proximity analysis for collision of interest, trajectory dispersions are obtained through
avoidance Monte Carlo analysis and for a particular catalogued
object, approximate trajectory dispersion values can be
There is a need to protect a launch vehicle in its as- fixed by considering the age of the orbital information
cent phase, as well as the spacecraft upon injection from of the object and the type of orbit it represents. The
any risk owing to debris collision, even though such risk procedural details are given in [2].
is small. One of the methodologies developed is that A typical result of the SPADEPRO analysis will be
of SPAce DEbris PROximity (SPADEPRO) analysis, given in terms of identification of time intervals during
which is required for COLlision Avoidance or COLA which the risks of collision with debris is above an
studies. SPADEPRO refers to assessment of collision acceptable level. The launch of the spacecraft can be
risk between catalogued resident space objects and a postponed by a few minutes to avoid these high-risk
launch vehicle or satellite of interest. The detection of intervals. Such a methodology has been successfully
close approaches to satellites/launch vehicles during the implemented during the satellite launches of the Indian
launch and early post-deployment phase of their life- Space Research Organization, for example the PSLV-
times is an important subset of the overall problem. C4 launch was postponed by a few minutes on 12th
Potential collisions during this period can usually be September 2002. Interestingly, one of the debris pieces
avoided by adjusting the time of launch within a speci- that led to this brief postponement is a fragment of
fied launch window. PSLV-C3 rocket body.
 V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174 173

6. Minimization of GTO lifetime 35000

30000
Many spent upper stages are separated and left in the

Apogee Altitude (km)

GTO, which is a highly eccentric orbit with the perigee 25000
normally at low altitudes (180–800 km) and the apogee
20000
near the geostationary altitude of around 36,000 km. The
evolution of objects in GTOs is determined by a com- 15000
plex interplay of atmospheric drag and luni-solar grav-
10000
ity. These orbits are characterized by periodic changes
in perigee altitudes caused by gravitational perturba- 5000
tions of the Sun and the Moon. The initial orientation
0
of the orbit just after the launch with respect to the 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 650
Sun and the Moon predominantly determines the subse- Days Elapsed since 18 April 2001
quent histories of the orbital evolution. The launch time
plays an important role. The combined influence of the 200
luni-solar perturbations and drag can result in lifetime 180

Perigee Altitude (km)

variations from a few months to several decades. The 160
desired effect from the space debris point of view is 140
a short lifetime. Unfortunately, one cannot always use 120
this natural phenomenon to limit the orbital lifetime, 100
as the launch time of a geostationary satellite is dic- 80
tated by many other factors like thermal aspects and 60
eclipse time related to the spacecraft design. However,
40
through appropriate choice of the initial perigee alti-
20
tude and launch time, the lifetime in GTO can be sig- 0
nificantly reduced. This feature was demonstrated both 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 650
in the case of GSLV-D1 upper stage as well as that Days Elapsed since 18 April 2001
of GSLV-D2.
Fig. 4. Orbital evolution of GSLV-D1 rocket body.
The predicted history for the orbital evolution of the
GSLV-D1 spent third stage is presented in Fig. 4. The
uncertainties in the drag-related parameters are taken During this period, following the cross-over point, the
into consideration in generating a dispersion band on perigee altitude then continues to fall marginally. The
the time for decay. The apogee and perigee histories evolution of the spent upper stage of GSLV-D1 was
for orbiting third stage of GSLV-D1 have been obtained studied and it was predicted that the reentry is expected
using monthly averages of actual solar activity index to take place around December 2002/January 2003 [11].
F10.7 from April 2001. The actual decay took place on January 18, 2003.
In this study, using the NPOE software with numeri-
cal integration of the GTOs, the Earth’s gravitational po-
tential up to J6,6 , luni-solar point mass gravitation with 7. Conclusion
Sun and Moon positions computed from JPL DE405
ephemeris and MSIS90 atmospheric model are used. In this paper, significant developments in ISRO in im-
Here one interesting point is to note a cross-over point in plementing space debris mitigation measures are briefly
apogee profile occurring around 530 days of the orbital described. ISRO considers space debris as an impor-
life. In the case of lower drag, the decay occurs owing tant subject for all the countries. The Debris Mitiga-
to sharper decrease in perigee altitude after 530 days tion Guidelines brought out by the Inter Agency Space
due to sharper decrease in perigee from the influence of Debris Coordination Committee is a very significant
luni-solar gravity. It can be seen that for the curves with milestone in this respect. In the design and operational
higher drag the lifetimes are longer. Because of higher phases of the launch vehicle and spacecraft programmes
drag the apogee altitude decreases faster which results of ISRO, these guidelines are followed to the maximum
in attenuation of luni-solar gravity effects. In cases with extent possible consistent with national service require-
higher drag the perigee remains at a relatively higher ment. There are still many more issues and many more
level as compared to those of cases with lower drag. challenges that space faring nations have to address in
174 V. Adimurthy, A.S. Ganeshan / Acta Astronautica 58 (2005) 168 – 174

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.
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Acknowledgements Equivalent Break-up Model, IAA-01-IAA.6.5.02, 2001.
[7] M.R. Ananthasayanam, A.K. Anil Kumar, P.V. Subba Rao,
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tions of A.K. Anilkumar, P. Bandyopadhyay, V. Gane- Space Debris in Altitude and Perigee Bins., IAA.5.P.04, 2003.
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Orbit Collision Probability Analysis in LEO Using SIMPLE
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