Abstract The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched in 1983 for the purpose of surveying the sky in a broad area of the infrared portion of the spectrum. While the primary objects of interest of IRAS were stars and nebulae, other types of space-related objects could also be observed. These include comets, asteroids, and Earth orbiting objects. Theoretical analysis indicates that IRAS could observe objects with a diameter of 1-mm at a range of 100-km and objects with a diameter of 1-cm at a range of 1000-km, while current ground-based observations of particles in low Earth orbit are limited to objects larger than 1-cm. Thus, these data offer a unique opportunity to ascertain the number density of particles below the present observable limit. At NASA/JSC a preliminary analysis of an IRAS data set has been performed to detect and describe this population, and the results of this study are presented.


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    Title :

    Analysis of IRAS data for orbital debris


    Contributors:
    Anz-Meador, P.D. (author) / Oró, D.M. (author) / Kessler, D.J. (author) / Pitts, D.E. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1987-01-01


    Size :

    6 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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    Van Hees, R. M. / De Jonge, A. R. W. / Wesselius, P. R. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1993


    Space debris observed by IRAS

    Wesselius, P.R. / van Hees, R. / de Jonge, A.R.W. et al. | Elsevier | 1993


    Detecting space debris above 900 km using IRAS

    DE JONGE, A. / WESSELIUS, P. | AIAA | 1990


    Orbital Debris

    Online Contents | 1993