Related papers: Space Debris -- Optical Measurements
Space debris, also known as "space junk," presents a significant challenge for all space exploration activities, including those involving human-onboard spacecraft such as SpaceX's Crew Dragon and the International Space Station. The amount…
The space environment around the Earth is populated by more than 130 million objects of 1 mm in size and larger, and future predictions shows that this amount is destined to increase, even if mitigation measures are implemented at a far…
Space debris larger than 1 cm can damage space instruments and impact Earth. The low-Earth orbits (at heights smaller than 2000 km) and orbits near the geostationary- Earth orbit (at 35786 km height) are especially endangered, because most…
Space Debris (SD) consist of non-operational artificial objects orbiting around the Earth, which could possibly damage space vehicles, such as the International Space Station (ISS) or other manned spacecrafts. The vast majority of such…
Earth is constantly being bombarded with material from space. Most of the natural material end up being dust grains that litter the surface of Earth, but larger bodies are known to impact every few decades. The most recent large impact was…
Thousands of satellites, asteroids, and rocket bodies break, collide, or degrade, resulting in large amounts of space debris in low Earth orbit. The presence of space debris poses a serious threat to satellite mega-constellations and to…
In order to avoid collisions with space debris, the near Earth orbit must be continuously scanned by either ground- or spaced-based facilities. For the low Earth orbit, radar telescopes are the workhorse for this task, especially due to…
Orbital debris presents a growing risk to space operations, and is becoming a significant source of contamination of astronomical images. Much of the debris population is uncatalogued, making the impact more difficult to assess. We present…
The increasing threat raised by space debris led to the development of different mathematical models and approaches to investigate the dynamics of small particles orbiting around the Earth. Such models and methods strongly depend on the…
The rapid advancement and miniaturization of spacecraft electronics, sensors, actuators, and power systems have resulted in growing proliferation of small-spacecraft. Coupled with this is the growing number of rocket launches, with…
Mirrors are a subset of optical components essential for the success of current and future space missions. Most of the telescopes for space programs ranging from Earth Observation to Astrophysics and covering all the electromagnetic…
We focus on preventing collisions between debris and debris, for which there is no current, effective mitigation strategy. We investigate the feasibility of using a medium-powered (5 kW) ground-based laser combined with a ground-based…
Orbital debris is a pressing problem which presents a danger to global space operations and a barrier to continued development of the space economy and space infrastructure. As research continues regarding orbital debris, there is a need…
Over 34,000 objects bigger than 10 cm in length are known to orbit Earth. Among them, only a small percentage are active satellites, while the rest of the population is made of dead satellites, rocket bodies, and debris that pose a…
Neglecting small fragments in space debris evolutionary models can lead to a significant underestimation of the collision risk for operational satellites. However, when scaling down to the millimeter range, the debris population grows to…
In a companion article, we discussed the radiometric sensitivity and resolution of a new passive optical sensing technique, Space-Time Projection Optical Tomography (SPOT), to detect and track sub-cm and larger space debris for Space…
Currently, space debris represents a threat for satellites and space-based operations, both in-orbit and during the launching process. The yearly increase in space debris represents a serious concern to major space agencies leading to the…
The study explored the usage of astronomical observations for the identification and tracking of artificial satellites. Spacecraft streaks on astronomical images are a growing issue for the astronomical community. The increasing number of…
With the boost in the number of spacecraft launches in the current decades, the space debris problem is daily becoming significantly crucial. For sustainable space utilization, the continuous removal of space debris is the most severe…
The threat posed by MMOD to spacecraft has escalated with the growing density of orbital objects, driven by the proliferation of satellite constellations such as Starlink and OneWeb. This paper reviews the current challenges and…