Review of detumbling technologies for active removal of uncooperative targets

Ever increasing space debris poses a great threat to the functioning spacecraft on orbit, and there is thus an urgent need for active removal of space debris. Space debris such as upper stage rocket bodies and expired satellites has lost attitude adjustment ability, and drifts freely in an uncontrolled state. Due to the perturbation torque on orbit involving solar pressure, gravitational gradient and the residual angular momentum before failure, tumbling motion of the uncooperative target can appear. Therefore, conducting a detumbling operation of the target before capturing is a suitable choice to minimize collision risk brought by direct contact. Based on analysis of the tumbling motion of the typical uncooperative targets including the upper stage rocket bodies and expired satellites, the detumbling process is introduced, and the proposed contact and non-contact detumbling methods in literature are reviewed. The key technologies including motion estimation and dynamic parameter identification, and detumbling control are analyzed. This study would provide some references for the development of active debris removal technology in China.