Choice of design characteristics of «garbage collector» spacecraft with a low-thrust electrojet engine

The paper is devoted to the problem of debris in the near-Earth space. We investigate a method of cleaning the space of large fragments of space debris using a “garbage collector” spacecraft with a low- thrust electrojet engine. A mass model of one-shot and shuttle spacecraft has been constructed. A mission trajectory plan is presented that includes the spacecraft flight from the parking orbit to that of debris location, its descent to the surface of the Earth and the return of reusable spacecraft to the parking orbit. Analytical relationships for the calculation of the spacecraft design parameters have been obtained for the proposed criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the logistic space mission and the assumption about constant thrust acceleration. The results of calculation of the design parameters are summarized.