EVOLVE 5.0 historical and projected orbital debris environments
Abstract
The NASA/JSC orbital debris research effort within Earth's low-altitude orbit continues with the upgrade of the debris environment simulation model EVOLVE to version 5.0. Two main improvements to this new version include an updated, expanded set of launch/orbital injection files and an upgraded explosion fragmentation model. The new database includes such improvements as high fidelity launch times and orbital elements, data-derived area-to-mass ratios, and individual object dry mass and physical description. The new explosion model is a modification of the previous version in the 10-cm through 1-mm size regime. This is the debris population that the previous model slightly overestimated. Resulting present day environments are presented in comparison to the US SPACECOM Space Surveillance Network (SSN) catalog and Haystack radar and Haystack Auxiliary Radar (HAX) data. Long-term projection environments, given presumed future launch rates and mitigation measures, are also shown and compared with those of the previous version of EVOLVE.
- Publication:
-
34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002cosp...34E.971K