A HANDBOOK TO SUPPORT THE NASA POLICY TO LIMIT ORBITAL DEBRIS GENERATION
- Paper ID
93-iaf-700
- author
- company
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co.
- country
U.S.A.
- year
1993
- abstract
A handbook is being developed to support the NASA policy to limit orbital debris generation. This handbook defines design and operations techniques for limiting the generation of orbital debris, provides support to help developing programs establish conformance to the policy, and supports the assessment of effectiveness of debris mitigation procedures. The subjects of primary concern in the NASA policy are debris generation under normal or abnormal operating conditions and debris generation as a result of on- orbit collision. The handbook addresses issues of control of operational debris, control of on-orbit explosions, control of collision risk (including the risk of damaging collisions during mission operations), and disposal of spacecraft at the end of mission life. In this paper the structure of the handbook, the supporting handbook software, and the user interface will be discussed. Debris environment evolution using the guidelines will be compared to evolution using historical practices and procedures. Particular emphasis will be placed on the section of the handbook addressing the issue of damaging collisions and the use of the handbook to support spacecraft vulnerability assessment.