Optimal mission planning of active space debris removal based on genetic algorithm

Abstract With the increasing space activities, the space debris has seriously deteriorated the safe performance of the on-orbit spacecraft and has attracted much attentions. To reduce the rising influence of the space debris and improve the safe performance of the space mission, the three-stage removal strategy for space debris is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the multiple spacecrafts including one main spacecraft and some following spacecraft for space debris removal mission is developed. Then, the fuel, time and the quantity of the following spacecraft are defined as the constraints. Moreover, using the minimum fuel consumption as the optimal object, the mathematical model of the debris removal problem is established. Finally, the genetic algorithm is applied to solve this problem. Compared with the prior space debris removal strategy, the proposed three-stage space debris removal can effectively reduce the fuel consumption. Numerical simulation verifies the effectiveness of the proposed space debris removal scheme.