Journal of the British Interplanetary Society VOLUME 71 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2018 General Issue PRESERVING GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT: the next steps Mark Hempsell, Roger Longstaff & Sebastiane Alexandra FUTURE RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING MISSIONS enabled by low-cost but safety compliant Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) architectures Steve Eckersley et al TERRAFORMING MARS in a climate of existential risk Keith Mansfield www.bis-space.com ISSN 0007-084X PUBLICATION DATE: 10 JANUARY 2019 Submitting papers International Advisory Board to JBIS JBIS welcomes the submission of technical Rachel Armstrong, Newcastle University, UK papers for publication dealing with technical Peter Bainum, Howard University, USA reviews, research, technology and engineering in astronautics and related fields. 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CONTENTS VOLUME 71 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2018 314 PRESERVING GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT: the next steps Mark Hempsell, Roger Longstaff and Sebastiane Alexandra 323 FUTURE RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING MISSIONS enabled by low-cost but safety compliant Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) architectures Steve Eckersley et al 348 TERRAFORMING MARS in a climate of existential risk Keith Mansfield OUR MISSION STATEMENT The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in all aspects of astronautics. JBIS Vol 71 No.9 September 2018 313 JBIS VOLUME 71 2018 PAGES 314–322 PRESERVING GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT: the Next Steps MARK HEMPSELL1, ROGER LONGSTAFF2 and SEBASTIANE ALEXANDRA3 1Hempsell Astronautics Ltd., 10 Silver Birch Avenue, Stotfold, Herts, SG5 4AR, UK; 2Guest Associates (Europe) Ltd., 2 Alyson Villas, Vincent Close, Ilford, IG6 7FE, UK; 3Barrister at Law, c/o Guest Associates (Europe) Ltd. email [email protected] A 2016 study produced an initial feasibility assessment of a system, called “Necropolis”, to collect uncontrolled satellites in geosynchronous orbit and re-locate them at a long-term storage facility, kept under permanent control. The study identified three areas that required attention in subsequent work. The first area was improving understanding the collision risk in geostationary orbit and the status of the major debris that creates the risk. New work is required that properly models the concentrating effect of the libration points, and also evaluates the change in risk due recent events, in particular the AMC-9 incident. The second area is the revision of the Necropolis technical concept to incorporate the new understanding of the urgency to improve debris control measures. The third area is the requirements for evaluation of the current space law relating to use of geostationary orbit that can enable proper regulation of the environment. This needs to address the requirement to report incidents and their causes, and to enable more precise determination of liability. Keywords: Geostationary orbit, Debris control, Necropolis 1 INTRODUCTION orbit. The study identified several areas where urgent work was required to increase the understanding of the real risks, The problem of anthropogenic debris and the threat it poses to develop the systems to control geostationary debris and to to operational space systems has been a growing concern. In establish the necessary regulatory environment. lower Earth orbits we already have a Kessler syndrome situ- ation – that is “the number of space-debris objects in some 2 THE NECROPOLIS STUDY orbital regions grows even if mitigation measures are applied” [1]. With the concern over the urgent matter of low Earth or- The premise of the Necropolis study [2] was that the practice bit, much less attention has been paid to the geostationary or- of relocating geostationary satellites to an unregulated “grave- bit, but the situation is complex and there is a higher risk of yard orbit” (around 300 km above geostationary altitude) a Kessler syndrome there as well unless active measures are would in the long term be unsustainable, as the debris density, taken to prevent it. and therefore the collision risk, increases and debris from a graveyard collision could reach geostationary orbit, putting The problem of the growing debris environment around ge- operational satellites there at risk. It was assumed this would ostationary orbit was the subject of a four months ‘quick look’ be a long term problem – many decades away – so the specific study conducted in 2016 which was led by Guest Associates subject of the study was a technology demonstration mission (Europe) Ltd., supported by Hempsell Astronautics Ltd., with that would verify the means to provide a strategy that would financial support from a grant awarded by the UK Space Agen- permanently control the debris in the geostationary environ- cy’s National Space Technology Programme [2, 3]. Although ment. The Necropolis demonstration flight