Schildknecht, T.; Musci, R.; Ploner, M.; Beutler, G.; Flury, W.; Kuusela, J.; de Leon Cruz, J.; Dominguez Palmero, L. F.
Bibliographical reference
Advances in Space Research, Volume 34, Issue 5, p. 901-911.
Advertised on:
1
2004
Journal
Citations
73
Refereed citations
70
Description
The space debris population in low Earth orbits (LEO) has been
extensively studied during the last decade and reasonable models
covering all size ranges were produced. Information on the distribution
of objects in the geostationary ring (GEO), however, is still
comparatively sparse. Until quite recently the population of man-made
objects in GEO had to be inferred solely from the about 900 continuously
tracked objects and the modeling of the two explosions known to have
occurred in GEO. Optical observations from the last two years performed
with ESA's 1-m telescope at the Teide observatory in Tenerife changed
the situation substantially. A hitherto unknown but significant
population of small-size objects with diameters as small as ten
centimeters has been detected in GEO. Objects in highly-eccentric orbits
crossing the GEO region, in particular objects in geostationary transfer
orbits (GTO), also contribute to the density of space debris in GEO.
This family is even less well known than the GEO population, although
many explosion events were reported in this orbital region. The paper
will summarize recent results from the ESA GEO survey and describe the
techniques and first results of a trial GTO survey.