Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/3001
Date of Award
6-2025
Degree Name
MS in Aerospace Engineering
Department/Program
Aerospace Engineering
College
College of Engineering
Advisor
Kira Abercromby
Advisor Department
Aerospace Engineering
Advisor College
College of Engineering
Abstract
The resurgence of lunar exploration necessitates the expansion of space situational awareness into cislunar space. The current tracking technologies for cislunar objects are insufficient to determine vacant orbital regimes for human spaceflight. Orbital debris generated in the cislunar environment often evolves along complex and chaotic trajectories due to the influence of multi-body dynamics. Current research into methods of removing orbital debris from space is limited to debris in Earth orbits. For cislunar orbits, debris disposal options are slowly gaining research, mostly centered on hypothetical solutions for active missions. Lunar impact and escape to heliocentric space are low-cost options, but serve to push the debris problem elsewhere without a sustainable long-term solution. Disposal orbits can hold objects indefinitely and have several beneficial properties that help to advance cislunar space situation awareness and ensure useful areas are kept clear. This research focuses on moving debris generated from the 9:2 Southern L2 near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) out to the 70,000 km distant retrograde orbit (DRO). Using the bicircular restricted four-body problem (BCR4BP) system dynamics, the transfers are completed with brute force optimization methods on instantaneous burns, low-thrust electric propulsion, and solar sail as a preliminary treatment of potential disposal options for various mission architectures. It was found that the delta-v for simple transfers can vary greatly based on the starting angle of the Sun with respect to the fixed Earth-Moon system. The lowest found used solar sail augmentation to obtain 293.8 m/s, showing that this method of debris disposal is viable for cislunar space.