Orbital debris removal using micropatterned dry adhesives: Review and recent advances

Abstract

Spaceflight is facing a sustainability problem in Earth orbit, where about $\text{90}\text{\%}$ of all man-made trackable objects are without functional use. Existing research activities on active debris removal are technologically complex and costly, which are potential reasons why no missions were carried out so far. Micropatterned dry adhesives inspired from climbing animals, such as geckos and beetles, have been proposed as a radically new docking and capture approach for non-cooperative targets. Their successful implementation is expected to significantly reduce the technical complexity and the overall mission cost. In this article, recent developments of micropatterned dry adhesives are reviewed with a focus on space applications and their use for active debris removal. The problem and solutions for active debris removal are analyzed and open issues that need to be addressed by future work are discussed.