The increasing risk of collision with man-made orbital debris is a threat to all spaceflight activities. Due to the very high velocities, on the order of 10 km/s, occurring in such collisions, even mm sized particles can penetrate the outer walls of a spacecraft. Currently, only the orbits of objects larger than 10 cm were determined by ground based measurements. Only sporadic measurements in the cm size range were performed. Hence, there is a data gap in the critical size range of the cm and mm population. Deterministic data on the cm size population, and better statistical data on the mm sized population are urgently needed to enable more detailed analysis of the collision risk and possible countermeasures, e.g., shielding and collision warning and avoidance for the Space Station. The potential contributions of the different kinds of sensors (ground based or space based) are discussed.
Closing the Data Gap of Space Debris: Ground Based or Space Based Sensors
1991
6 pages
Report
No indication
English
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