Canadian Space Agency Feedback on Solar Sail debris collection

We submitted a small business proposal to the Canadian Space Agency for funding and we were denied but they gave us feedback on how to create a better plan for our Solar Sail Debris Collection.

We will still pursue the creation of a plan for solar sail space debris collection and look for other funding sources as well as self-funding. Making our research open source and freely available under the creative commons license.

Details of plan submitted to the CSA:

Image 1: Solar Sail concept with pockets that collect small 1cm - 5cm space debris. Low relative speeds required to collect space debris and the solar sail would spin to capture low speed space debris.

Space debris is a major issue in low earth orbit with more than 900,000 particles greater than 1 cm in diameter. Each one capable of damaging to futures satellites and space missions. This space debris will only increase as time goes on as more satellites get launched every year.

The project’s purpose is to further research solar sail technology as a dual-purpose propulsion and space debris capture net. For the goal of creating a robust and long-lasting space debris collection system. Researching and developing a re-enforced solar sail that can capture space debris as a net.

There was issues with our proposal and we didn't get the funding but we did receive this helpful feedback about how to improve our design.

We received the general feedback:

The proponent is proposing a novel idea and is commended on taking the initiative on tackling the discussion on a much needed technology....

We suggest to the bidder to tackle calculating various orbital trajectories of space debris to determine impact velocities compared to a 1Kg-1U satellite leading to solar sail reinforcement technology recommendations, then proceeding to small solar sail reinforcement technology demonstrations, small solar sail deployment techniques, and solar sail guidance algorithms for small 1Kg-1U CubeSats.

We will continue this research and refine our plan to collect space debris. There is issues that space debris can travel in the opposite direction in an orbit from the direction of travel of satellites doubling the impact speed of orbital debris. so the speed of impacts can be as high as 15km/s even though the average speed of space debris is only 7km/s to 8km/s (ARES | Orbital Debris Program Office | Frequently Asked Questions (nasa.gov))

If the orbital solar sail could travel in the same direction as the space debris the impact velocities can be slowed down as the solar sail can travel at 7km/s to 8km/s to catch the debris. More to follow as I continue to research.