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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20160007396: The Impact of New...
by NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
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The main goal of this study is to examine the impact of
new trends in satellite launch activities on the orbital
debris environment and collision risk. Starting from the
launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957, space
borne technology has become an indispensable part of our
lives. More than 6,000 satellites have been launched into
Earth orbit. Though the annual number of satellites
launched stayed flat for many decades, the trend has
recently changed. The satellite market has been
undergoing a major evolution with new space companies
replacing the traditional approach of deploying a few
large, complex and costly satellites with an approach to
use a multitude of smaller, less complex and cheaper
satellites. This new approach creates a sharp increase in
the number of satellites and so the historic trends are
no longer representative. As a foundation for this study,
a scenario for satellite deployments based on the
publicly announced future satellite missions has been
developed. These constellation-deploying companies
include, but are not limited to, Blacksky, CICERO, EROS,
Landmapper, Leosat, Northstar, O3b, OmniEarth, OneWeb,
Orbcomm, OuterNet, PlanetIQ, Planet Labs, Radarsat,
RapidEye Next Generation, Sentinel, Skybox, SpaceX, and
Spire. Information such as the annual number of launches,
the number of orbital planes to be used by the
constellation, as well as apogee, perigee, inclination,
spacecraft mass and area were included or approximated.
Besides the production of satellites, a widespread
ongoing effort to enhance orbital injection capabilities
will allow delivery of more spacecraft more accurately
into Earth orbits. A long list of companies such as
Microcosm, Rocket Lab, Firefly Space Systems, Sierra
Nevada Corporation and Arca Space Corporation are
developing new launch vehicles dedicated for small
satellites. There are other projects which intend to
develop interstages with propulsive capabilities which
will allow the deployment of satellites into their
desired orbits beyond the restrictions of the launch
vehicle used. These near future orbital injection
technologies are also covered in the developed scenario.
Using the above-mentioned background information, this
study aims to examine how the orbital debris environment
will be affected from the new dynamics of the emerging
space markets. We developed a simulation tool that is
capable of propagating the objects in a given deployment
scenario with variable-sized time-steps as small as one
second. Over the course of the run, the software also
detects collisions; additional debris objects are then
created according to the NASA breakup model and are fed
back into the simulation framework. Examining the
simulation results, the total number of particles to
accumulate in different orbits can be monitored and the
number of conjunctions can be tracked to assess the
collision risks. The simulation makes it possible to
follow the short- and long-term effects of a particular
satellite or constellation on the space environment.
Likewise, the effects of changes in the debris
environment on a particular satellite or constellation
can be evaluated. It is authors hope that the results of
this paper and further utilization of the developed
simulation tool will assist in the investigation of more
accurate deorbiting metrics to replace the generic 25-
year disposal guidelines, as well as to guide future
launches toward more sustainable and safe orbits.
Date Published: 2021-01-12 16:08:15
Identifier: NASA_NTRS_Archive_20160007396
Item Size: 269991
Language: english
Media Type: texts
# Topics
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