Research on the Dynamic Performance of Tether-Net Closing Mechanism in Space Debris Capture

The space tether-nets belong to the flexible capture systems for removing space debris. This paper proposes a closing mechanism to ensure the reliability of the tether-net for target capture. To investigate the dynamic performance of the tether-net closing mechanism, the truss unit is used to simulate the tether unit. Then the tether-ring slip model of the tether-net closing process is established by the strict master/slave contact algorithm and penalty function model, and the dynamics model of the closing process is established accordingly. Finally, the accuracy of the simulation model is validated by comparing it with on-ground experiments. Perform parametric analysis to compare simulation and experiment, the results show that the simulation is consistent with the experiment.