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Creating a space debris catalogue for an orbital band with suitable candidates for active removal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2016

D. Dean
D. Dean*
Affiliation:
DSTL, Sensors and Countermeasures Department, Salisbury, UK
*
daviddean_24@hotmail.com
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Abstract

There are over 16,000 pieces of debris that are larger than 10cm in diameter being tracked which could cause a catastrophic destruction of a satellite if they were to collide. To reduce the likelihood of this happening, debris production is being reduced through debris mitigation techniques; however the debris already in space will need to be removed as well. To design an effective debris removal mission, the first logical step would be to gather as much detail as possible on debris that is known to exist within the orbital band of interest. This report presents a catalogue of debris, created entirely from open source data, for an orbital band within the 900-1,000km altitude range and 82-83° inclination, and offers a possible candidate for deorbit – the Cosmos 3M final-stage rocket body, of which there are 142, each with a mass of 1,435kg, length of 6·5m and diameter of 2·4m.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 117 , Issue 1192 , June 2013 , pp. 617 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2013 

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