Orbital debris poses a substantial threat to many Earth-orbiting spacecraft, particularly those near Sun-synchronous altitudes. Man-made debris is not equally prevalent at all altitudes, however; geostationary satellites likely experience more damage from meteoroid impacts than from debris. We have conducted a comparison between debris- and meteoroid-induced damage on cubic aluminum spacecraft orbiting the Earth at a variety of altitudes and orbital inclinations using NASA's latest models of these environments: ORDEM 3.1 and MEM 3. We use the results to determine in which regions the risk is debris- or meteoroid-dominated, and find that debris dominates the risk between altitudes of about 600 and 1300 km above the Earth, while meteoroids dominate at altitudes less than 270 km or greater than 4800 km.
The Ratio of Debris- to Meteoroid-Induced Damage in Near-Earth Space
CODER 2020 Virtual Workshop ; 2020 ; Virtual, US
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Space Shuttle debris and meteoroid impacts
Elsevier | 2003
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Online Contents | 2004
|NTIS | 2003
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British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001
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