Evaluation of the inertia matrix and angular motion control for Zenit-2 launch vehicle’s second stage in the framework of space debris de-orbiting

The paper focuses on the preliminary analysis of the requirements imposed to the attitude control system of a space vehicle (SV) aimed at collecting large-size space debris (LSSD) objects. The approximate inertia matrix of Zenit-2 launch vehicle’s second stage is obtained. This object is at present the largest and most massive in LEO among the existing last stages and upper stages. The angular velocities of these objects with respect to their centres of mass are estimated using the data from PPAS photometric catalogue. It is supposed that a new mechanical system appears when an active SV captures a stage, and so the angular motion of this system is studied for SVs of various masses, while the sizes of SVs are taken similar to those of the Soyuz family. An approach for control torque function selection is proposed; the goal of the control is to damp the system’s angular motion over fixed time interval with due account of some technical constraints.