Effects of Electric Potential Uncertainty on Electrostatic Tractor Relative Motion Control Equilibria

The electrostatic tractor has been proposed to touchlessly remove space debris from geosynchronous orbit by taking advantage of intercraft Coulomb forces. A controlled spacecraft (tug) emits an electron beam onto an uncooperative or retired satellite (debris). Thus, the tug raises its own electrostatic positive potential to tens of kilovolts, whereas the debris charges negatively. This results in an attractive force called the electrostatic tractor. Prior research investigated the charged relative motion dynamics and control of the electrostatic tractor for two spherical spacecraft and how charge uncertainty affects the relative motion control stability, but attitude effects could not be studied due to the two-sphere model. This work uses the multisphere method to consider general three-dimensional spacecraft shapes, and it investigates how the electric potential uncertainty and debris attitude impact the equilibrium separation distance between the two craft. The results show bounds for safe operations that avoid a collision. State regions are identified where the relative motion is particularly sensitive to potential uncertainty. The relative station-keeping performance using either higher- or lower-fidelity multi-sphere method models are compared to demonstrate that even a lower-fidelity multi-sphere method model can yield good results.