公开(公告)号：US20200295522A1

公开(公告)日：2020-09-17

申请号：US16770203

申请日：2018-12-07

申请人： BNNT, LLC

发明人： R. Roy WHITNEY ,  David R. DOUGLAS ,  Henry P. FREUND ,  George R. NEIL

IPC分类号： H01S3/08 ,  H01S3/23 ,  H01S3/09

摘要： Orbital debris removal (ODR) systems under the present approach may use a ground- or surface-based FEL and mirror system with sufficient power and both spatial and temporal resolution to both locate Category II OD (1 cm to 10 cm diameter) in low Earth orbit (LEO, 160 to 2000 km altitude) and remove these objects from orbit. Locating the Category II OD is performed by having the light beam from an FEL and its beam director scan a volume of space of interest and then observing the light reflected from the OD. Removing the OD may include heating the OD to a sufficiently high temperature to evaporate the OD, changing the orbit of the OD such as to lower the perigee, or both. Megawatt-class MOPA FELs for, inter alia, removing OD, are described.

公开(公告)号：US20230006412A1

公开(公告)日：2023-01-05

申请号：US17902406

申请日：2022-09-02

申请人： BNNT, LLC

发明人： R. Roy WHITNEY ,  David R. DOUGLAS ,  Henry P. FREUND ,  George R. NEIL

IPC分类号： H01S3/08 ,  H01S3/09 ,  H01S3/23

摘要： Orbital debt is removal (ODR) systems under the present approach may use a ground- or surface-based FEL and mirror system with sufficient power and both spatial and temporal resolution to both locate Category II OD (1 cm to 10 cm diameter) in low Earth orbit (LEO, 160 to 2000 km altitude) and remove these objects from orbit. Locating the Category II OD is performed by having, the light beam from an FEL and its beam director scan a volume of space of interest and then observing the light reflected from the OD. Removing the OD may include heating the OD to a sufficiently high temperature to evaporate the OD, changing the orbit of the OD such as to lower the perigee, or both. Megawatt-class MOPA FELs for, inter alia, removing OD, are described.