Analysis of cleaning concepts of near-Earth space

The flight safety of the spacecrafts used for different purposes is determined by a great number of factors, one of which is the possibility of their destruction or damage due to a random collision with technogenic space debris. The technogenic space debris is all space objects of artificial origin being in the near-earth orbit, including fragments or parts of such objects, which terminated their active operation. According to the official data, every year the number of technogenic space debris objects is increasing. The tech- nogenic space debris objects could result in termination of any activity in space as the velocity of these objects in different orbits can reach the supersonic. Taking into account the geostationary orbit peculiarities related to the space- craft immobility with respect to the subsatellite point on the Earth, the end-of-life spacecraft must be deorbited. It is necessary in order to provide the possibility to perform positioning of the new spacecraft into this orbital slot. The geostationary spacecraft failure makes the use of this orbital slot impossible in the future. Thus, the relevance of the work is determined, on the one hand, by the necessity to vacate the orbital position occu- pied by failed spacecraft, and by the avoidance of risk of failed spacecraft collision with operational spacecrafts, on the other hand. This paper contains the information concerning the space objects launches into the near-Earth space and the num- ber of space debris objects in it for the last seven years. The current concepts of the near-Earth space clearance are also considered. The paper presents the data on the service spacecraft concept, being developed by engineers of the JSC “ISS” based on existing unpressurized platforms for geostationary spacecrafts. The objective of this research consists of the analysis of current technogenic clogging of the near-Earth space and the analysis of existing concepts of the near-Earth space cleaning. In conclusion it is noted that the results of analysis of these concepts are taken into account by engineers of the JSC “ISS” during the development of the service spacecraft intended to remove the space debris from the geostationary orbit area.