@Article{MurciaPiņerosDosSPrad:2021:AnOrLi,
               author = "Murcia Piņeros, Jhonathan Orlando and Dos Santos, Walter 
                         Abrah{\~a}o and Prado, Antonio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida",
          affiliation = "{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto 
                         Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto Nacional de 
                         Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)}",
                title = "Analysis of the orbit lifetime of CubeSats in low Earth orbits 
                         including periodic variation in drag due to attitude motion",
              journal = "Advances in Space Research",
                 year = "2021",
               volume = "67",
               number = "22",
                pages = "902--918",
                month = "jan.",
             keywords = "Aerodynamic drag, CubeSat, Low Earth Orbits, Orbit propagation, 
                         Orbit decay, Space debris mitigation.",
             abstract = "It is estimated that more than 22,300 human-made objects are in 
                         orbit around the Earth, with a total mass above 8,400,000 kg. 
                         Around 89% of these objects are non-operational and without 
                         control, which makes them to be considered orbital debris. These 
                         numbers consider only objects with dimensions larger than 10 cm. 
                         Besides those numbers, there are also about 2000 operational 
                         satellites in orbit nowadays. The space debris represents a hazard 
                         to operational satellites and to the space operations. A major 
                         concern is that this number is growing, due to new launches and 
                         particles generated by collisions. Another important point is that 
                         the development of CubeSats has increased exponentially in the 
                         last years, increasing the number of objects in space, mainly in 
                         the Low Earth Orbits (LEO). Due to the short operational time, 
                         CubeSats boost the debris population. One of the requirements for 
                         space debris mitigation in LEO is the limitation of the orbital 
                         lifetime of the satellites, which needs to be lower than 25 years. 
                         However, there are space debris with longer estimated decay time. 
                         In LEO's, the influence of the atmospheric drag is the main 
                         orbital perturbation, and is used in maneuvers to increment the 
                         losses in the satellite orbital energy, to locate satellites in 
                         constellations and to accelerate the decay. The goal of the 
                         present research is to study the influence of aerodynamic 
                         rotational maneuver in the CubeSat's orbital lifetime. The 
                         rotational axis is orthogonal to the orbital plane of the CubeSat, 
                         which generates variations in the ballistic coefficient along the 
                         trajectory. The maneuver is proposed to accelerate the decay and 
                         to mitigate orbital debris generated by non-operational CubeSats. 
                         The panel method is selected to determine the drag coefficient as 
                         a function of the flow incident angle and the spinning rate. The 
                         pressure distribution is integrated from the satellite faces at 
                         hypersonic rarefied flow to calculate the drag coefficient. The 
                         mathematical model considers the gravitational potential of the 
                         Earth and the deceleration due to drag. To analyze the effects of 
                         the rotation during the decay, multiple trajectories were 
                         propagated, comparing the results obtained assuming a constant 
                         drag coefficient with trajectories where the drag coefficient 
                         changes periodically. The initial perigees selected were lower 
                         than 400 km of altitude with eccentricities ranging from 0.00 to 
                         0.02. Six values for the angular velocity were applied in the 
                         maneuver. The technique of rotating the spacecraft is an 
                         interesting solution to increase the orbit decay of a CubeSat 
                         without implementing additional de-orbit devices. Significant 
                         changes in the decay time are presented due to the increase of the 
                         mean drag coefficient calculated by the panel method, when the 
                         maneuver is applied, reducing the orbital lifetime, however the 
                         results are independent of the angular velocity of the 
                         satellite.",
                  doi = "10.1016/j.asr.2020.10.024",
                  url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2020.10.024",
                 issn = "0273-1177 and 1879-1948",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "pineros_analysis.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "09 maio 2024"
}