Orbital Dynamics of the ISS: Spacecraft Protection and Collision Avoidance
Abstract
The increasing number of objects orbiting the Earth justifies the attention and interest in the observation, spacecraft protection and collision avoidance. These studies involve different disturbances and resonances in the orbital motions of these objects. Considering approximately 10000 cataloged objects around the Earth, one can verify the distribution of the objects as: 7% of operational spacecraft, 22% of old spacecraft, 17% of rocket bodies, 41% of miscellaneous fragments and about 13% of mission-related objects. The uncatalogued objects larger than 1 cm are estimated in some value between 50000 and 600000. Most of the space debris are found in the LEO region. In this work, the orbital motions of space debris are studied in the neighborhood of the ISS - International Space Station. Resonant orbital motions are considered and real data from the 2-line element set of the NORAD (North American Defense) are used to compare with the analytical model. Figures show the time behavior of the orbital elements, resonant angles and resonant periods. One can observe that the collision risk of space debris with the ISS is growing and solutions for the space debris mitigation are necessary.
- Publication:
-
40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cosp...40E.442C