Proposals for a flight experiment on active removal of a spent rocket stage

In the development of scientific and methodological proposals for carrying out the flight experiment of the elements of a system for active de-orbiting of large debris from the low-orbit region of the near-Earth space, it is suggested to take the following steps: a) the development of the system should be based on international cooperation, including the phase of creating its major scientific and methodological concepts; b) as large space debris it is suggested to use a spent second stage of the space launch vehicle "Kosmos-3M" (target), being in orbit for a long time, with angular speeds slow enough to allow its docking, capture and termination of rotation by the proposed system; c) the selection of the target (from potential ~ 300 spent second stages of "Kosmos-3M" located in the low orbit protected region) for the flight experiment is carried out on the basis of the criteria developed; d) it is proposed to develop an active docking module (ADM), allowing the installation of various systems of docking, for capture, nulling the kinematic momentum of the target and its towing (mechanical, non-contact) into the disposal orbit; e) the flight experiment of the proposed technical solutions should be carried out in the co-launch of payloads using different launch vehicles and boosters; f) the long-distance guidance tasks and the de-orbiting of the [ADM + target] configuration is assigned to the booster; g) ADM's tasks include near guidance, docking with the target, capture, and target rotation braking; h) separating the ADM from the booster in the near-distance guided area, the reverse docking of the [ADM + target] configuration with the booster is performed by using a tether system; i) a controlled de-orbiting [booster + ADM + target] into the disposal orbit must be provided, ensuring its maximum burning in the atmosphere and the fall of the unburned fragments on a predetermined oceanic area with a casualty expectancy well below 0.0001. The proposed concepts do not consider such possible methods for de-orbiting the target: tether systems applied to the target, laser pulses fired to the target, solar sails, etc.