Space Debris: Proceedings of Meeting B8 of the Cospar Twenty-Ninth Plenary Meeting Held in Washington DC, USA, 28 August - 5 September 1992(Vol 13 Advances in Space Research)

Space surveillance has confirmed the increasing number of large and useless objects orbiting the Earth. Of the known 7000 objects which have a minimum size of about ten centimetres in low Earth orbit and about one metre in the geostationary orbit, only about 6% are active satellites. Over 40% are fragments of breakups of rocket upper stages and satellites. The increasing amount of man-made objects in space as a result of space operation now gives cause for concern. Several independent analyses conclude that current practices in space will eventually lead to collisions between Earth orbiting objects. The forty papers presented in this volume comprise an overview of the current situation and also outline measures which could be taken to control the growth of debris.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Space surveillance and measurements of the environments: US space surveillance, N.L. Johnson; the Russian space surveillance system and some aspects of spaceflight safety, V. Dicky et al; radar observations of small space debris, E.G. Stansbery et al; a space station-based orbital debris tracking system, G.D. Arndt et al. Part 2 Meteoroids and small-size space debris - analysis of material returned from space: the near Earth space impact environment - an LDEF overview, J.A.M. McDonnell et al; estimation of debris cloud temporal characteristics and orbital elements, J.P. Oliver et al; preliminary analysis of the second layer of space pointing capture cell on the long duration exposure facility, H. Yano et al; orbital debris and meteoroids - results from retrieved spacecraft surfaces, J.C. Mandeville et al; an instrument for discrimination between orbital debris and natural particles in near-Earth space, A.J. Tuzzolino et al. Part 3 Space debris models and future evolution: orbital debris environment in low Earth orbit - an update, D.J. Kessler; predicting spatial density characteristics from breakup models, R.S. Hujsak; one approach to the analysis of space debris evolution due to atmospheric drag, R.R. Nazirov and A.A. Sukhanov; orbital evolution of space debris due to aerodynamic forces, R. Crowther. Part 4 Risk analysis and protection: collision risk analysis for low Earth orbits, H. Klinkrad; collision risk in sun synchronous low Earth orbit, G. Dittberner and D. McKnight; space station "Freedom" debris protection techniques, E.L. Christiansen et al. Part 5 Breakup modelization and long-term evolution: long term orbital debris environment sensitivity to spacecraft breakup parameters, A. Reinhardt et al; future collisional evolution of Earth-orbiting debris, A. Cordelli et al; on runaway conditions of orbital debris environment, S.-Y. Su. Part 6 Debris mitigation: reduced debris hazard resulting from a stable inclined geosynchronous orbit, L.J. Friesen et al; a methodology for selective removal of orbital debris, R.L. Ash et al; the effectiveness of space debris reduction measures, D. Rex. Part 7 National and international issues: space debris studies in Japan, S. Toda and T. Yasaka; space debris - an international policy issue, W. Flury and D. McKnight.