HORN: The In-Orbit Demonstration Mission Overview and its Results of Drag Sail for PMD with Japanese H3 launch vehicle
- Paper ID
102302
- DOI
- author
- company
Teikyo University; BULL Co., ltd.; Tohoku University
- country
Japan
- year
2025
- abstract
Recently, the number of space debris, which is caused by the upper stages of rockets, satellites that have completed their operations has been increasing year by year, increasing the risk of object collisions in space. The increase in the number of space debris and the rising risk of collisions is a major challenge for sustainable space development and utilization. There are two possible methods of space debris control: Active Debris Removal (ADR), which safely removes space debris already in orbit, and Post Mission Disposal (PMD), which prevents the increase of space debris in the future. While each method has its own merits and demerits, efforts to prevent the spread of space debris through PMD, which has clear advantages in terms of cost and time to implementation, have been attracting attention recently. Among space debris, rocket debris has a large mass ratio compared to its quantity and is expected to cause extensive damage upon impact. Therefore, BULL Corporation has developed a PMD system as a device to rapidly lower the final stage of a rocket into orbit with the aim of solving the problem of space debris more quickly and effectively and is conducting space demonstrations with the ultimate goal of social implementation. The objectives is to implement the PMD system in society. The first priority is to design a PMD system that is safe enough for spacecraft and reliable and high performance. In addition, the PMD system should be versatile enough to be quickly introduced into existing rocket designs, aiming to become the de facto standard in the global market. These activities are being conducted as industry-government-academia fusion-type co-creation activities. In this context, the HORN (Hurtling Orbit Normalizer) project was launched in November 2023, targeting the upper stage of rockets. The initial concept is to target the upper stage of the rocket. The orbital altitude of the target object is assumed to be LEO/SSO orbit up to about 600 km, and the mass is about 500 kg. An on-orbit demonstration mission was proposed and adopted for a 10 kg-class, W6U size on a ride-share launch of the Japanese launch vehicle H3. This launch is planned for the summer of 2025, and development for this launch and on-orbit demonstration is currently underway. This paper presents an overview of this mission, its validation methodology, system features, and a preliminary report on the results of the on-orbit demonstration.