平流层气球基激光碎片清除的概念与原理

中文摘要 AI 辅助

长期以来，基于激光的脱轨一直被认为是缓解日益增长的轨道碎片（特别是分米级物体）的一种有前景的技术——这些物体大到足以造成灾难性碰撞，但又太小，无法通过当前主动碎片清除（ADR）任务经济地捕获。然而，基于激光的方法的实际实施仍受到若干因素的限制。地面系统受到大气吸收、散射和湍流的影响，这会降低光束质量并限制有效的能量传递。天基平台受益于优越的传播效率，能够实现更紧凑、更低功率的系统，但需要复杂、高成本的轨道基础设施，并面临部署、维护和可扩展性方面的严峻挑战。本文提出了一种基于平流层气球的激光碎片清除概念，探索了地面与天基方法之间的中间状态。由于运行在99%以上大气质量之上，此类平台可能实现紫外（3HG/4HG）激光操作——这在地面水平上因臭氧吸收而在很大程度上被排除——并具有改进的传播和烧蚀耦合效率，同时与轨道系统相比面临不同的工程约束。本文并非提供一个完全开发的系统，而是侧重于概念设计和基本原理。我们描述了主要的架构要素，讨论了预期的运行范围，并将该概念与现有的地面和天基解决方案进行对比，指出了潜在优势以及需要进一步研究的关键挑战和局限性。该工作是在STRATOLASER项目内开发的，这是一个EIC Pathfinder Challenge项目，旨在通过平流层气球实验达到TRL 4。

英文摘要

Laser-based deorbiting has long been proposed as a promising technique for mitigating the growing population of orbital debris, particularly decimetre-scale objects -- large enough to cause catastrophic collisions yet too small to be economically captured by current active debris removal (ADR) missions. However, the practical implementation of laser-based approaches remains constrained by several factors. Ground-based systems suffer from atmospheric absorption, scattering, and turbulence, which degrade beam quality and limit effective energy delivery. Space-based platforms benefit from superior propagation efficiency, enabling more compact and lower-power systems, but require complex, high-cost orbital infrastructure with demanding deployment, maintenance, and scalability challenges. This paper proposes a stratospheric balloon-based concept for laser debris removal, exploring the intermediate regime between ground-based and space-based approaches. Operating above 99% of the atmospheric mass, such a platform may enable ultraviolet (3HG/4HG) laser operation -- largely precluded from ground level by ozone absorption -- with improved propagation and ablation coupling efficiency, while presenting a different set of engineering constraints than orbital systems. Rather than a fully developed system, this work focuses on the conceptual design and underlying rationale. We describe the main architectural elements, discuss the expected operational envelope, and position the concept against existing ground- and space-based solutions, identifying potential advantages as well as key challenges and limitations requiring further investigation. Developed within STRATOLASER, an EIC Pathfinder Challenge project targeting TRL 4 through stratospheric balloon experiments.

发表机构

• Asociación de Investigación y Cooperación Industrial de Andalucía (AICIA)（安达卢西亚工业研究与合作协会）
• HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院物理研究所 HiLASE 中心）
• B2Space Launch Systems LTD（B2Space 发射系统有限公司）
• B2Space Launch Systems SL（B2Space 发射系统有限责任公司）
• Sapienza University of Rome（罗马大学）
• Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU)（脉冲激光中心）
• Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR（弗劳恩霍夫高频物理与雷达技术研究所）
• FRV Space Technologies SL（FRV 空间技术有限责任公司）

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