New technology developed at the U to remove space debris

A new technology dubbed “omnimagnets” was developed by two University of Utah professors and is now being used by a New Hampshire-based robotics company to help clean up space debris.

Rogue Space Systems Corporation will use the new technology for its robots in many different ways, such as: B. in the repair of satellites or the removal of space debris.

According to Jake Abbott, a mechanical engineering professor who helped develop omnimagnets, the technology consists of three electromagnets that create a magnetic field to capture a piece of space debris and stop that fall to repair an object in or out of space remove orbit.

Tucker Hermans, an associate professor in the School of Computing, also helped develop the technology.

Abbott said that when a satellite or piece of space junk needs to be accessed to make repairs or remove it from orbit, the robotic equipment runs the risk of breaking the space junk or robotic arm, creating more debris. Many more complications arise when attempting to synchronize two objects orbiting the earth to grab them.

“But the problem with these objects is that they may have been floating around in the Earth’s magnetic field and their own dynamics for a long time,” Abbott said.

Omnimagnets were designed to solve some of these problems – synchronizing a robotic satellite with a piece of space junk and then stopping that object from falling. Abbott said some people had come up with solutions to knock objects out of orbit, but stopping the fall was still a problem.

“The problem is, this thing only staggers on that one step, and you don’t know how to safely grab it to remove it from orbit,” Abbott said.

Hermans said this technology can also be applied to objects in space that aren’t magnetic, as well as pieces of space junk that the teams operating the robots didn’t design and don’t know the exact dimensions of. Hermans focused his research on this type of problem.

“I’ve worked with Professor Abbott on some other projects and we thought, well, what would it mean to manipulate objects if we didn’t design the objects,” Hermans said. “You know, at the same time he taught me this phenomenon of eddy currents, where we can, you know, manipulate non-magnetic objects that are conductive with magnetic fields.”

Abbott said it’s long been known that magnetic objects can be manipulated with a magnet, but what makes this technology special is that it can manipulate non-magnetic objects in space. Additionally, these omni magnets allow you to do more than just push and pull an object—they allow for six degrees of movement.

“I was really interested in whether it would be possible for us to do that,” Abbott said. “Same level of manipulation of metals that weren’t magnetic.”

Abbott said his interest in manipulating non-magnetic objects also coincided with the growing problem of space debris, ultimately leading to this new technology being used by rogues.

Hermans said he is pleased that their technology is being used and hopes their research will continue to produce positive results for society.

“We’re really confident that this is going to be like a big, long-term research line that we’re doing over the next few years that hopefully can make a real contribution to society and not just write a few articles.”

According to Abbott, the work performed is funded by two separate grants from the US Space Force and a grant from the National Science Foundation.

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