MOSCOW. Aug 12 (Interfax-AVN) - A fleet of 20 orbital tugs with nuclear propulsion units may solve problems of the geostationary orbit packed with over 1,200 pieces of debris in addition to operating spacecraft, the Energia Corporation said.
"Cleaning of the geostationary orbit from spent satellites is a commercially feasible project due to the shortage and high costs ($20 mln to $50 mln) of orbital spots into which new telecom satellites may be inserted," suggested an article, "Prospects and Efficiency of Nuclear Power Sources and Nuclear Propulsion Units", published in the first issue of Energia's Kosmicheskaya Tekhnika and Tekhnologii magazine.
The article co-authored by Energia President and General Designer Vitaly Lopota, Energia First Deputy General Designer for Science Viktor Legostayev and Energia Academic Consultant Viktor Sinyavsky says "a fleet of two dozen tugs of three modifications with the electric power of 150 to 200 kilowatts may clean the geostationary orbit from spent satellites and other large fragments of space debris, the numbers of which top 1,200 at present."
"Most of these objects are occupying orbits of 35,400 to 36,600 kilometers. A typical size of spent satellites is two to three meters and their average mass is 2.5 tons," the article said.
It presumed that in the future nuclear tugs might be used "in the removal from orbit of satellites with an expired service life or defunct for other reasons." In addition, the tugs may fuel and repair operating satellites, move them from one spot of the geostationary orbit to another and distribute payloads between the geostationary orbit and low circumterrestrial orbits.