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Prof Colin McInnes

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Colin McInnes is Director of the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde. His work includes the investigation of families of novel spacecraft orbits and their mission applications, autonomous control of multiple spacecraft systems and advanced space concepts, reported in over 150 peer-reviewed journal papers. His recent work is exploring new approaches to spacecraft orbital dynamics at extremes of spacecraft length-scale to underpin future space-derived products and services, funded by an Advanced Investigator Grant from the European Research Council. Over the last ten years McInnes¹ work has been funded by a diverse range of international partners including research councils (ERC, EU, EPSRC, STFC), agencies (ESA, NOAA) and industry (EADS Astrium, Lockheed Martin ATC, Clyde Space).

 

Analytic modelling of the long-term evolution of orbital debris
The dynamics of the long term evolution of orbital debris is investigated using closed-form, analytical methods.  The analytical solutions thus obtained describe the evolution of the debris distribution under the action of atmospheric drag for a class of initial distributions.  By the addition of a debris creation function, the interaction of debris deposition and removal by atmospheric drag can also be investigated.  The solutions give insight into the global dynamics of the long-term evolution of orbital debris.

 
 
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