Geography 2090A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Federal Aviation Administration, Iridium Satellite Constellation, Climate Change Mitigation
20 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Orbital debris what is the problem: orbital debris refers to the large number of objects in earth"s orbit, many of which are fragments or uncontrolled objects, leo and meo are cluttered, but not necessarily dangerously so. Meo 2001kms 35780 kms: the current concern relates to geo (gso) a thin band around the earth"s equator (with a few degrees of variation) at 35786 kms altitude. Long term observation, allows for very strong and consistent communications networks, etc. Have been instances of objects breaking up in orbit making up the majority of orbital debris. There are a modelled 500k objects to small track (bolt sized objects) and perhaps millions of objects less than a centimeter in diameter (paint chips, small shards, etc. ) Many of these objects travel at a speed of about 32k km/hour: even if all new launches avoid new debris, there is still enough debris already in orbit to pose a significant threat.
