For example, it is expected that debris can be burned and removed by irradiating the debris with a plasma flow and decelerating it to lower the orbital altitude and entering the atmosphere.On the other hand, since the propulsion machine that injects the plasma flow is accelerated in the opposite direction to the debris, it is necessary to inject the plasma in the opposite direction to cancel the force acting on the satellite.This requires two engines, which must also be equipped with a high-power propulsion machine of several kW class. Therefore, the method using the ion engine that has been proposed in the past requires improvement in durability and the like. rice field.

　Under these circumstances, research groups at Tohoku University and the Australian National University have been working on the development of an electrodeless plasma propulsion machine (helicon plasma thruster), which is expected to be a long-life, high-power plasma propulsion machine, and use it to remove debris. Demonstrated that it is possible with one propulsion machine.

　In the laboratory experiment, by realizing and controlling the bidirectional plasma emission, it was possible to decelerate the object imitating debris while maintaining the state where the thrust acting on the propulsion machine is zero.In addition, it was shown that the propulsion unit can be accelerated and decelerated by the external magnetic field coordination and the fuel introduction method, and that all the operations required for the debris removal satellite can be realized by one propulsion unit.

　It is expected that further development will proceed toward practical use in the future.

Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Demonstrating a new technology for space debris removal using a bi-directional plasma thruster