Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Active Debris Removal Mission via Electric Propulsion

A design optimization framework for an active orbital debris removal mission to minimize the life cycle cost and mission time is presented. The general concept of operations consists of spacecraft capable of deorbiting 22 identical high-priority debris from sun-synchronous orbit via continuous low thrust from electrostatic thrusters. This modular subsystem framework is proposed and investigated with a fractional factorial design of experiments approach as preliminary analysis in order to inform effects of design variables as well as identify the scope of possible design and output space. The single-objective optimization minimizes the life cycle cost of the mission through a heuristic-based genetic algorithm, resulting in a 4.12-year, $354 million mission using 5.34 kW xenon Hall thrusters. Pareto fronts generated by a multiobjective weighted-sum genetic algorithm are presented to highlight the cost and time objective space for both a nominal and expensive xenon price per kilogram to show design space fluctuations with xenon price volatility. High-power 8 kW xenon Hall thrusters are proven to be in closest proximity to the utopia of the multiobjective design space with a cost of $687 million and mission time of 1 year. High-power krypton Hall thrusters prove to offer a comparable alternative to xenon systems.