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Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs (2011) / Chapter Skim
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2 Orbital Debris Environment: Detection and Monitoring
Pages 17-22

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From page 17...
... altitudes, ground radar and telescopes are used to track the orbital debris environment, where the cataloged sizes are larger than 1 meter. Figure 2.2 illustrates the number of uncataloged objects detected near GEO by the Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST)
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From page 18...
... SOURCE: Courtesy of NASA-JSC, from Orbital Debris Program Office, "APPEL Orbital Debris Mitigation & Reentry Risk Management Course," CD, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex., 2010, Part 1B, pp.
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From page 19...
... The diagonal line represents what the size of the population might be as the result of an explosion in GEO and suggests that such an event may be the source of this smaller debris; however, further analysis and observation will have to be performed to determine the source of these uncataloged objects and whether the size distribution will continue along this line for absolute magnitudes larger than 16. SOURCE: Adapted, courtesy of NASA-JSC, from Orbital Debris Program Office, "APPEL Orbital Debris Mitigation & Reentry Risk Management Course," CD, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex., 2010, Part 1B, pp.
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From page 20...
... , which must correctly convert RCS to size of debris and hazard, and to the LEGEND model, which must properly capture the relative contribu tions of various sources of debris to help NASA "lead the continued development and adoption of international and industry standards and policies to minimize debris, such as the United Nations Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines" (p.
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From page 21...
... The in situ data from satellites such as the three Pegasus satellites launched in 1965 has turned out to be critical in helping to resolve uncertainties in the remotely sensed data and was a major component in defining the parameters in meteoroid environment models used today. Given uncertainty in the current RCS calibrations, in situ data are also likely to be a major component in defining parameters in models of the orbital debris environment.
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From page 22...
... Finding: NASA's orbital debris programs do not include the capability to monitor with in situ instru mentation the penetrating flux of objects smaller than a few millimeters. Data collected by in situ mon itoring could be used to resolve uncertainties in measurements made remotely, to help identify new sources of debris, and to provide clues to the causes of spacecraft anomalies.
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Key Terms

  • debris environment
  • debris program
  • uncataloged debris
  • debris mitigation
  • johnson space

  • uncataloged objects
  • nasa johnson
  • meteoroid flux
  • altitudes below
  • space center

  • debris flux
  • debris programs
  • haystack radar
  • situ data
  • reentry risk

  • earth orbit
  • nasa orbital
  • debris measurements
  • debris monitoring
  • orbital characteristics

  • meteoroid environment
  • radar ocean
  • nasa langley
  • returned spacecraft
  • langley research

  • damage measured
  • size estimation
  • geosynchronous earth
  • space shuttle
  • haystack auxiliary


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