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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13244.
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B

Statement of Task

The National Research Council, under the auspices of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, will establish an ad hoc committee to assess NASA’s orbital debris programs and provide recommendations on potential opportunities for enhancing their benefit to the nation’s space program.

The committee will:

1. Review NASA’s existing efforts, policies, and organization with regard to orbital debris and micrometeoroids, including efforts in the following areas:

  • Modeling and simulation;
  • Detection and monitoring;
  • Protection;
  • Mitigation;
  • Reentry;
  • Collision assessment risk analysis and launch collision avoidance;
  • Interagency cooperation;
  • International cooperation;
  • Cooperation with the commercial space industry.

2. Assess whether NASA should initiate work in any new orbital debris or micrometeoroid areas.

3. Recommend whether NASA should increase or decrease effort in, or change the focus of, any of its current orbital debris or micrometeoroid efforts to improve the programs’ abilities to serve NASA and other national and international activities.

The committee should assume that the programs will be operating in a constrained budget environment.

The study will result in two reports. The first will be a workshop report and the second will be the committee’s final report at the conclusion of the study.

This project is sponsored by NASA.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13244.
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Page 106
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Derelict satellites, equipment and other debris orbiting Earth (aka space junk) have been accumulating for many decades and could damage or even possibly destroy satellites and human spacecraft if they collide. During the past 50 years, various National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) communities have contributed significantly to maturing meteoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) programs to their current state. Satellites have been redesigned to protect critical components from MMOD damage by moving critical components from exterior surfaces to deep inside a satellite's structure. Orbits are monitored and altered to minimize the risk of collision with tracked orbital debris. MMOD shielding added to the International Space Station (ISS) protects critical components and astronauts from potentially catastrophic damage that might result from smaller, untracked debris and meteoroid impacts.

Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Program examines NASA's efforts to understand the meteoroid and orbital debris environment, identifies what NASA is and is not doing to mitigate the risks posed by this threat, and makes recommendations as to how they can improve their programs. While the report identified many positive aspects of NASA's MMOD programs and efforts including responsible use of resources, it recommends that the agency develop a formal strategic plan that provides the basis for prioritizing the allocation of funds and effort over various MMOD program needs. Other necessary steps include improvements in long-term modeling, better measurements, more regular updates of the debris environmental models, and other actions to better characterize the long-term evolution of the debris environment.

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