The accumulation of Earth-orbiting space debris leads to important new design considerations. Some 5,000 orbiting objects, many of them explosion fragments, are currently being tracked and future collision of these objects with each other is predicted. These collisions will occur at high velocities. Each collision will be explosive, ejecting thousands, of new orbiting objects, in turn increasing the frequency of future collisions. The debris population may thus become self-regenerative, and the future flux of orbiting debris will exceed that of meteoroids. As a result, a large space structure in Earth-orbit for several years has a significant probability of impact by debris objects. As a design problem, debris impact is significantly different from meteoroid impact. Protection against such large objects may require structural measures. The consideration of debris impact in the design of large, Earth-orbiting spacecraft is recommended.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Debris impact on Earth-orbiting spacecraft


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1985-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    A LOW EARTH ORBITING SPACECRAFT

    TURNER ANDREW E | European Patent Office | 2021

    Free access


    Future collisional evolution of Earth-orbiting debris

    Cordelli, A. / Farinella, P. / Anselmo, L. et al. | Elsevier | 1993