Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Environment as Determined by the CCD Debris Telescope Observations Between 1998 and 2002

摘要

Understanding the evolving debris environment is essential if the human race continues to venture into space. Of particular importance is the geosynchronous environment in which satellites have been placed since the 1960s. Debris in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) has an enhanced potential for collision with operational satellites due to the extremely long lifetimes of the debris. The Charged Coupled Device (CCD) Debris Telescope (CDT) conducted systematic searches of the GEO environment to help characterize and determine the extent of the debris found in this volume of near-Earth space. The observations provided distributions in brightness, mean motion, inclination, range, and Right Ascension of Ascending Node (RAAN) of detected debris. Yearly reports (NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) publications) described details of the observing program and observed distributions (Jarvis et al., 2001, 2002, 2007a, 2007b). In this final report, a summary and comparison of the observations is conducted. All observed magnitudes have been corrected for standard solar distance, a Lambertian phase function at phase angle 0 , and an observed range, when possible. Orbital elements were derived from two or more astrometric positions based on the assumption of a circular orbit (eccentricity = 0 ). We define the dimensions of a GEO environment to be between 34,000 km and 40,000 km and between 0 and 17 inclination based on the assumed circular orbit (ACO) elements of the observations. The scope of the paper is limited to the population distributions of objects found in this defined GEO environment.